Ngoc Khanh Nguyen– Virginia - USA

I left Vietnam on April 5th, 1991 with my parents and my three siblings. That was the first time I flew on a Vietnamese aircraft after 1975.

We arrived in Bangkok and were transferred to a transit place. It was a big house surrounded by barbed wire. We stayed there for a week. Every day, we received 2 meals. The menu was the same, rice with 2 boiled eggs and a bag of spicy cabbage soup per person. On the day we left the transit camp, while sitting on the bus that took us to the airport , we were sprayed many times with water from people on the streets. We were told that it was a Thai holiday celebration. We got on a long flight: Bangkok- Nepal- Paris- London-New York- Washington DC. The whole trip took about 38 hours.

We arrived in Maryland on April 16th, 1991.

Below is my name tag identifying me as a member of the HO program.

Tuong Vi, another best friend, also came to Tan Son Nhat airport to say goodbye to me.