april 30
1975 known as black sunday
that day the north vietnamese army took
over saigon forcing the u.s to abandon
its embassy and evacuate more than 7 000
u.s citizens and south vietnamese allies
by helicopter
vietnam had now fallen to communists
those who couldn't get out had a
difficult decision stay and live under a
communist regime or risk everything and
try to escape my brother was crying and
being like hush
you can't make any noise you're going to
get in big trouble if you do lontrong
was just eight she remembers her parents
whisking her away on a dark july night
in 1978. you couldn't talk you couldn't
go anywhere
you just felt like
something bad horrible is going to
happen but you don't know what's going
to happen next i think that is the most
terrifying thing for a child to go
through lon's brothers on and van trong
were four and nine at the time their
family of six putting their lives and
hopes into a fishing boat my dad i
remember saying you know we're gonna go
to america but there was nothing
specific attached to that and i remember
being at a sort of a fisherman's hut
which is very unusual and then being
woken up in the middle of the night and
saying
follow us and we start walking through
mud and i remember just losing sandals
it was just something sliding we were
putting the little boats and they put
little nets all over us to hide us
and all of a sudden we started
recognizing some of our relatives you
know our cousins and uncles
and then finally like a boat came and we
all you know started boarding it that
small fishing boat carried 51 people
including 18 children it was headed to
malaysia but after several days in the
south china sea they were lost and we
were just floating we weren't really
going anywhere
you're just drifting and drifting and
drifting and no one talked like there's
no noise
just silence and then eventually my dad
would say there's no more water there's
nothing i started to feel like i think
this is it we're gonna die
the united nations high commission for
refugees estimates between 200 and 400
thousand people died trying to escape
vietnam by boat their lives taken by
storms disease starvation and pirates i
do remember
other ships had passed us and i think
they threw oranges over the side and
just kept going if you're on a boat no
water no food the engine died there's a
storm in the horizon and it's inevitable
that
that you would not survive as the ball
comes closer and closer you can see
there was a lot of people on the boat
george peterson was the 44 year old
chief mate on gateway city a container
ship making her final voyage before
being scrapped
george and the crew spotted the small
fishing boat crammed with people
how much longer do you think they had i
don't know how much time but he didn't
have much time left i'm sure that so
when you see this boat
initially your captain said you can give
them food and water but we can't take
them on yeah what made you think we
can't just give them food and water we
need to rescue them
and any human being can see that you see
you have to realize too is when you're
out in the open sea
we all brothers and sisters we all have
to look out for one another if somebody
needs help you give them help but so
many other big ships had passed them by
that happens
yeah that happens
when did you think
you weren't going to die
oh when
people around me start saying yeah
there's a ship there's a ship and we all
got so excited we were all screaming
yelling i hear the adults begging like
please just take us when george came
down i just remember i have never ever
seen anyone
that looked different
here's this man that was so big and not
vietnamese
he's danish
and i thought oh my gosh who
what is this like i've never
ever seen anyone outside of our
uh country before
i told the captain i said look help and
i recommend
you can't leave them here and he said if
you can leave them here we don't leave
them here the next couple moments were
you know back and forth talking
negotiating and seeing for the first
time um
huge men
with blue eyes
big muscles like literally carrying us
you know from the little boat up up to
the ship george painstakingly worked
with quat win a vietnamese lawyer on the
boat and the only one who spoke english
writing down everyone's name and
birthday creating a record that would be
a road map
to this reunion 44 years later yeah well
you did it without you we would not have
been here you're here that's the main
thing that's all we asked for yeah
lisa demm was 19 when she last saw
george now a researcher at johns hopkins
university in maryland she credits
george with giving her a second chance
at life i feel that i have to be here
to personally thank the man who saved
our life you have given us a chance
for a new life
for freedom
and new opportunity in america so from
the bottom of my heart and the other
refugee who you rescue we forever owe it
to you we were in the right spot at the
right time that's you yeah plaid shirt
oh wow
george says he's never stopped thinking
about everyone on that boat i spent a
lot of time trying to find these people
to the newspapers and vietnamese
organizations
and
never had any luck while the refugees
had been searching for him
george had also been searching for them
but it wasn't until a neighbor saw this
photo of the fishing boat and asked
george about the refugees that he got
his first breakthrough so i told her the
story
and i don't even have a list of the
names
he said give me the list of the names
and i'm going to try to help them to
find them
and
steven in there in the computer the
evening the next morning she came back
with a telephone
here's ming
minwyn was two years old at the time of
the rescue he was the first of many
refugees to reconnect with george in
2018
for antron now an attorney for the city
of los angeles it would be another year
before he and his family reconnected
with george my dad and
dan sent letters trying to search out
george years ago you hit dead end after
dead end yeah but in 2019 a relative
sent them this book george's memoir
right there in the photographs the
polaroids george had taken and saved for
more than 40 years did you recognize
yourselves right away what kind of
memories came back when you saw those
pictures
oh boy
well i saw myself taking a bite of that
apple and i i there's a lot of things
that kind of came back you'll never
forget kind of the first time eating a
fruit that is so
kind of like it has this this smell to
it and it's like this taster that
this fruit that doesn't exist in your
land i think we were all shocked because
it was trying to find that needle in a
haystack
over the last several years george is
reunited with 28 of the 51 on that boat
he's now 88 years old and hopes to know
what happened to all of them
how important is it for you to try to
meet all of the people that were on that
little fishing boat this really is very
important to me i would love to know
where you are
until then gratitude you were the right
person
in the right place in the right time
thank you and
unending love
[Applause]
vicki nguyen nbc news palm springs
california
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