Ex-GI Dedicates Life to Help Amerasians

John Rogers found the daughter he lost in 1973 asleep on the floor of a hut in Vung Tau on the coast of Vietnam south of Ho Chi Ming City.

He had no doubt that she was the child he had named Gloria Jean shortly before leaving Vietnam for home. There are not many black Asian girls.

Since finding his only child last year, the Honolulu travel agent has dedicated his life to helping Amerasians, the offspring of Vietnamese women and American servicemen born during the Vietnam War.

“I had thought about my daughter all those years. I felt it was my responsibility all that time to take care of her,” said Rogers, a former master sergeant who spent six years in Vietnam. “Now I want to see all of them educated and well taken care of.”

Rogers has established the Foundation for Amerasian Children’s Emergency Support, or FACES, in Hawaii.

This Pied Piper of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) has bought two houses in the city to shelter 200 Amerasian children who would otherwise be sleeping in city parks. He is also funding welfare projects through the Vietnamese government.

“Right now they’re considered outcasts, half-blood children who are at the back of the line for everything,” Rogers said after his 17th visit to the Communist country in a year.

Rogers said Vietnamese officials estimate that up to 20,000 children were left behind by U.S. soldiers when the war ended in 1975.

Over 10,000 left for the United States under the Orderly Departure Program, but Rogers estimates that about 8,000 to 10,000 Amerasians still remain in Vietnam. Many are left to fend for themselves once they reach their teens and quickly slide into poverty.

Rogers’ experience during the war was typical of many.

He met a woman 20 years older than himself in a nightclub in Vung Tau. When he left the beach resort in 1969 she was pregnant. Later in the year he met another Vietnamese woman whom he married. Before leaving for the United States with his new wife, he saw his daughter a few times.

His daughter is now at a refugee camp in the Philippines and is expected to join Rogers in Hawaii later this year.

Rogers was unaware just how many children the American forces had left behind when they pulled out in 1975 until he returned to Vietnam for the first time last year.

“I was shocked at all those kids sleeping in the park and how little they had to eat,” Rogers said. “So I took 110 of them out to eat in a restaurant. The next day I came back and there were even more, so I took them out to eat as well.”

Rogers formed FACES on his return to Hawaii, persuading interested people who used his travel business, including doctors, to help the children once they arrived in Vietnam.

As news of Rogers’ philanthropy spread, more and more Amerasians trekked into the city. Realizing that he was beginning to cause problems, Rogers decided to funnel financial help through Vietnamese welfare authorities.

Most of the money so far has come from Rogers. FACES has raised less than $10,000, although Rogers says several Vietnam veterans who now hold key posts in large organizations have pledged funds.

Once the Amerasians’ basic needs have been satisfied, Rogers wants to help the children fit into society--whether they stay in Vietnam or make it to the United States.

“We’ll try and help those who want to leave by first telling them the truth--that when they arrive in the States people are not going to run with open arms and hug them,” he said in an interview.

“We want to take those who want to stay and train them so they can do well in the community. We would also like to have the funds to bring those back who can’t face life in the U.S once they get there.”

In the longer term Rogers wants to open more “transition centers,” like the two in Ho Chi Minh City, in 24 locations and expand a vaccination program for Amerasians.

Rogers was in Australia to try to persuade Vietnam veterans here to accept responsibility for some of the children.