This site literally would not exist without his help and encouragement. I alternated between 2 Nikon bodies: a Nikkormat EL and an F2S. I never saw her again. Wake Island is a tiny island in Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean, 2/3 of the way from Honolulu to Guam, best known for its role in World War II. Amid fears for their safety, more than 3,000 infants were flown out of Vietnam, mainly to the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, but also to Australia. At first, the cargo planes flew the refugees to U.S. bases in the Philippines, but when President Ferdinand Marcos set limits on the number of refugees in his country, the Air Force flew the evacuees on to Guam and Wake, where they were processed for further travel to the United States. It would be impossible to do justice to how much he meant to me personally as well as the site. on May 3rd of 1975. Grace Bui has been an independent human rights activist for Vietnam since 2010 and an advocate for the Vietnamese refugees in Thailand since 2014. We have our own history, our own medal, and we are still proud. We could smell something rotten without details, he had shrapnel in his legs and the wounds were infected. Prior to World War II, Wake's status was a matter of controversy, and Japan landed there often in the 19th Century to kill, and eventually extinguish, an indigenous bird, the rail, for its decorative feathers. In April 1975, communist forces took over South Vietnam and Cambodia (Kampuchea). After years of searching, a chief mate sailor who saved 51 Vietnamese refugees in 1978 was reunited with a group of them 44 years later. The most bizarre and improbable story leading to this site concerns Clinton Blount. My father worked for Air America and very fortunately for us, we left one day prior to the day of The Fall of Saigon. Bidong Island is accessible from the coastal town of Merang in Setiu district. Later in his brief time as a student there, Jake brought home his music theory book and said that "some guy" had come into class that Saturday and talked about music and other "stuff." About 14 minutes into the flight, as the plane climbed to 23,000 feet, an explosive decompression blew out the rear cargo doors and damaged flight controls to the tail. One of the few fortunate facts about my stay there was Greg's company and quick eye for B.S. That movement remains so strong today that many people have grown up thinking that it is an eternal verity, without serious rational rival. Thanks many times over. Leave a LIKE and a comment. Vietnamese refugees arrive at Galang by boat c 1980. Forty-five years ago in April 75 I was working as an army medic at the Pacific refugee camps. Two days later, both a C130 and a C141 were hit by bullets near Tan Son Nhut AB. The first one everybody knows about. Greg was a fellow weatherman and questioner of the world. 1. If the CEO of, say, Harper/Collins happens to be surfing the Web in his abundant leisure time, keeping tabs on the state of expression in the English language, I feel I must note that I already have written three books of over 100,000 words each in urgent need of publishing. Top 10 Facts about Living Conditions on Wake Island. were Filipinos sadly, though, after wed returned home from Wake we had learned that nearly half of them who wed met were killed in a plane crash on their way home for their own R&R. I'm sorry that you have no way of knowing how much you touched my life and my heart. 1999 - 2023 AMC Museum Foundation, Inc. Others sought to escape because they did not want to live under a communist system. Not quick enough to spot mine, of course, but that's Major League material. I made free prints and distributed them at the time because I knew they might be meaningful to you, personally, in the future. My baby sister also called Whin was only 1 month old. On April 24, gunfire damaged a C130 as it flew over the Saigon area. But on April 30, 2000, the Kansas City Star had run a full-page spread commemorating the 25th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam, and a separate story about these pictures ran well below the fold. A July 8, 1979 file photo shows Vietnamese refugees waiting to be collected in the China Sea on board the French hospital ship "Island of Light". I know thats a mouthful but its a story I dont often get to share, let alone a story not many wish to hear- Mahalo (thank you) for allowing me the chance to share And GOD Bless You All! Wake Island has never been known to have a set population. Posted On 7, 2022. When Guam filled with refugees, a newer processing camp on Wake Island went into operation. Huynh's boat arrived on Pulau Bidong in 1978, just weeks after the island was opened to refugees. Within a few years, the music budget of Parks and Recreation was slashed, and the great sounds that came from our parks each summer had changed. We were immediately placed into our proper quarters rooms which were about 12x12 NO AC (lol) and water was rationed 24hr on / 24 hrs off I say all that to Thank ALL My Brothers and Sisters who served In Country In Nam who didnt have the luxuries we had or those serving today in Middle East THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR STRENGTH, YOUR ENDURANCE, AND YOUR PERSERVERANCE and OF COURSE FOR YOUR SERVICE! I will be overjoyed if you do these things. I still have photos. ecause of the advances in Internet technology and server-user interface permeation, I am happy to announce that merely accessing this site has been known to have miraculous effects on certain diseases. But some of you are as clear in my mind and my memory as yesterday's sunset. Things changed when the refugees and CIA folks came in from all over various places in indochina. We also became aware that a lot of Vietnamese citizens who had been our allies during the war were also leaving, rather than face the fate that the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers might have for them. It is a domain having com extension. I live with my wife, the former Fengzhu Song (often called Sufei) of Beijing, China. ), and the crossover group, Blood, Sweat, and Tears. wakeisland1975.com is 2 decades 10 months old. Perhaps I could have added something to yours, as well. God Bless. The Air Force grounded the C5s, but continued the operation with other cargo planes. Kathleen Henrickson, my colleague at Blue River Community College, was extremely helpful and patient with the disruption to her life my scanning caused. The airlift operations also exposed weaknesses in emergency airlift evacuation procedures, aircraft structures, and diplomatic relations. Posted 2022610 by 2022610 by Bill identified a child with chicken pox, the Japanese authorities on the plane thought he said Small Pox and therefore refused to allow future flights to land from Vietnam onto Japanese soil. y name is Dennis Lowden. PRAISE GOD! I want to mention the Hoang family. It gave the world Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and Count Basie. If you were on Wake Island you know that I gave you copies of these pictures the day after I took them. It reminds me of the scene in the movie To Kill a Mockingbird when Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) is standing guard at night outside the jail in expectation of a white lynch mob from town. By that time we knew we had a good relationship and decided to apply for a permanent visa for her so we could marry and live here. Babylift and New Life overlapped. Its possession since 1945 by the United States has been undisputed in international law, though there is a movement in Hawaii to retake what is called by some "Enenkio" to become a member of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Perhaps by the next site revision, I can provide news of their final disposition rom 1973-1975, I lived on Wake Island, a territory in the Pacific completely owned by the United States. My son Jake and I would go to nearly every concert, and heard such great players as Gary Burton and Chick Corea, Dave Brubeck, Toshiko Akiyoshi and her big band, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Nat Adderley, Big Joe Turner, the wonderful Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander, the Heath Brothers (at least three of them! 4.78 Rating by CuteStat. ^ N. Mark Shelley, "Building Community from 'Scratch': Forces at Work among Urban Vietnamese Refugees in Milwaukee," Sociological Inquiry 71 (Fall 2001): 474. Like many other island residents, I also took on some volunteer assignments, including that of editor of the weekly island paper, The Wake Observer, and hosting evening programs on the island's AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Services) AM station, KEAD. That brought to 84,389 the number of refugees who have passed through here since the airlift from South Vietnam began 19 days ago. Thousands more escaped by air. Which doesn't mean that I don't appreciate her for her own individuality and uniqueness; after all, because of her I now have another gray hair! Wake Island is a tiny island in Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean, located 2/3 of the way from Honolulu to Guam, best known for its role in World War II. Waves of Vietnamese Refugees In 1975, in the closing days of the Vietnam War, about 130,000 Vietnamese who were generally high-skilled and well-educated, and who feared reprisals for their close ties to Americans, were airlifted by the United States government to bases in the Philippines, Wake Island, and Guam. I formerly taught meteorology for the National Weather Service Training Center, in Kansas City, and founded and published the now defunct wine newsletter, Hair of the Dog. The closest land to Wake is the Marshall Island of Bikini, 500 nautical miles to the south. When I arrived, in September 1973, there were 250 people employed or stationed there. Biden Turned Back on Vietnamese Refugees Stephen Fox: Despite Biden's objections and from other leading Democrats, U.S. military evacuated 130,000+ Vietnamese refugees in the immediate. Others sought to escape because they did not want to live under a communist system. Among those were 27.1 million refugees, half under the age of 18 (21.3 million refugees under UNHCR 's . In the wake of the Vietnam War, a thirty-year conflict that killed millions of people and left the country devastated, the US became one of several countries to resettle Southeast Asian refugees. The American forces resisted fiercely and with great heroism, but Japan eventually took the island on December 24, holding it until September 4, 1945, when they surrendered it to American authorities. The pictures hung on the walls at Blue River through June 17, 2005. The refugees were attacked by pirates and were trafficked and sold into slavery and prostitution. Navy and Marine Corps CH46 and CH53 helicopters carried out most remaining U.S. and Vietnamese refugees, but nine Air Force helicoptersseven CH53s from the 56th Special Operations Wing and two HH53s of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadrontook part in Operation Frequent Wind. The reason all other flights were then switched to Guam was because when Cpt. Dont know the whole story but am familiar with the baby lift at the beginning. The first to leave were several thousand South Vietnamese military and government officials who departed with US forces in 1975. Its land mass is about 2.5 square miles, spread out along a nearly 15 mile coastline. On December 11, 1941, Wake Island was the site of the Japanese Empire's first unsuccessful amphibious attack on U.S. territory in World War II when U.S. Marines, with some U.S. Navy personnel and civilians on the island, repelled an attempted Japanese invasion. In short, that period of time which began in April 27, 1975 changed my life forever! There was a call for volunteers to board planes going to Nam on a weekend to remove children. On December 8, 1941, Imperial Japanese military forces attacked Wake as a part of its strategy best known for the attack on Pearl Harbor. At first she wouldnt talk with anyone but, and I believe it was GOD who ordained and orchestrated it she felt comfortable with me Tet looked so much like my own little girl in Hawaii. After more than 25 years of inactivity, my own printmaking chops have totally deteriorated, so I was fortunate to have found someone as talented and personable as Luke to take care of this project. It began in the 1920s and continued through the next 25-30 years. The second, Operation New Life, ran from April 23- November 1, 1975, airlifting over 100,000 evacuees and refugees from South Vietnam. In 15 days in May, 73 commercial and 123 military flights transported 24,560 passengers to Fort Smith. Marine gunners let them close to 4,500 yards before their 5-inch naval guns opened fire. The Japanese garrisoned Wake with more than 4,000 troops and erected extensive fortifications to protect them from attack. We miss you! Video sponso. Vietnam War Refugees and Operation New Life: In the spring of 1975, the population of Wake Island consisted of 251 military, government and civilian contract personnel, whose primary . The lowest temperature ever recorded was 64. Operation Babylift began with tragedy. This article explores the characteristics of Vietnamese immigrants, including their . Though theyd managed to get on board a destroyer because of the massive number of boat people clambering to board our ships a decision was made to hold of medical treatment until they arrived at port Wake island. My own picaresque life can be pieced together, at least partially, from journals I kept from 1995-2005 and which can be viewed on this site under the link Books, on the left. We had never met, to my knowledge, but she had seen a Wake Island posting I had left at another Web site and decided to contact me. For me, the visitors meant two things: women and children. We had never met, but he had seen a story about me and my Wake Island pictures in a newspaper in Laredo, Texas. In the months since then, our correspondence has been the highlight of every day. It's called Love is in the Air, Along with Some Other Pollutants. I felt more human around children, and after I shot the first few obligatory rolls of cute girls lying at the beach, I concentrated mainly on children. We live in Independence, Missouri, and I have recently retired from teaching Philosophy at the Blue River Campus of MCC -- the Metropolitan Community College of Kansas City. They take up an obscene number of frames in my Wake Island photography, and I don't begrudge a one of them. Wheels down we disembarked and headed to base you couldnt help but see hundreds, more likely nearly 1,000 (+) Vietnamese people lined up awaiting transportation and being screened by Security Police personnel. I came back the next day and took care of her again. The main modes of arrival for the Vietnamese have shifted over the years, from refugee protection to family reunification. Even went down town and bought a basket of BALUT and other foods that were simliar to what the vietnameese ate. Measuring only 1 square kilometer in area, the camp was designed to house 4,500 people, but. We spent the last four months of 2012 living together in my house in Independence before her tourist visa expired at the end of the year. Stories of the stench of rotting rail corpses in the sun reached the U.S., and the government cited the still-obscure Guano Act of 1856 to seize the island in about 1898. When communist artillery hit and set on fire a C130 on the ground at Tan Son Nhut on April 28, Hercules flights out of Saigon also ended. The innermost recesses of the lagoon, south of Flipper Point, could be most charitably described as a brackish marsh. Ronald, reading your comment lead me to document and experience that I had with my Blue Ribbon Aircraft recovery team in Apr of 75 at Fort Smith AR. Chau Mai it was me and my Air Force Blue Ribbon Team that blocked your planes in and helped you off at Fort To pull off those very complex MULTIPLE airlift operations spread out through the pacific is beyond impressive. I'd still be using it happily had I not dropped it in Swan Creek, in southern Missouri, while canoeing in the summer of 1979. With these pictures, I want to pay tribute both to the musicians who played in Kansas City during that time and the idea, still alive somewhere, that a community is better off, and its citizens are better off, when our municipal institutions enrich our lives, not merely butt out. The Kansas City, Missouri, Parks and Recreation Department used to sponsor free concerts each summer in the various parks owned by the city. Refugees. Oanh Meyer began investigating the links between. Part of her kind acquiescence may have had to do with the justifiable guilt she felt for having attached the scanner (a Nikon, lest we forget) to some sort of barbaric Macintosh pseudo-computer. wake island vietnamese refugeesmarc d'amelio house address. Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain. Wake has seen trans-Pacific airliners, military tenants, and active wartime action over years. Starting on April 23, 1975, the Air Force flew missions around the clock bringing refugees to Clark Air Base, Andersen, and Naval Air Station Agana. Immediately after unloading the passengers, the Starlifter boarded 250 other Vietnamese refugees for a flight from Clark to Guam. But none of these images or words truly belongs to you. Sorry, no sex in that one. When the Midway became overcrowded, the squadron also moved 804 refugees from the carrier to other Navy ships in the flotilla. ake is located at 19 degrees, 17 minutes north latitude, and 166 degrees, 39 minutes east longitude in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated territory of the United States and comprises three low-lying coral islets (Wilkes, Peale, and Wake) that rise from an underwater volcano to 21 feet (6 metres) above sea level and are linked by causeways. It consists of three separate islands: Wake, the center one, Wilkes, the westernmost, and Peale, the northernmost. Smith Air Port. It consists of three separate islands: Wake, the center one, Wilkes, the westernmost, and Peale, the northernmost. No women were permitted on the island unless they had a job, which meant the island contained a lot of frustrated males. They scaled the compound's fencing, pushing back against US.