Ceremony to Remember Fall of Saigon Stirs Powerful Emotions

The ceremony was meant to honor both Vietnam veterans and the South Vietnamese refugee families who first arrived at Camp Pendleton after the fall of Saigon and the end of the war. It was intended as a simple, yet long overdue salute, and it was the only one of its kind in the nation.

And for some who attended the “From War to Hope” service at the Marine base Sunday, it was all they wanted. To be recognized for just an hour or so, in metal bleachers and in blazing heat, with an unreliable sound system that seemed to cut out at the worst possible times. They wanted to be remembered more than they wanted to remember. They wanted to reflect a little, not too much.

But for most of the 250 veterans and refugees, the day was more complicated. The emotion was strong and inescapable, not unlike it is every year on that day, when veterans and refugees mark the fall of Saigon.

Such feelings were especially overwhelming Sunday, when thousands across Orange County commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Day of Mourning; and yet as was true about most everything with the Vietnam War, their feelings were hard to explain.

“I feel so happy today,” said Ky Nguyen of Irvine, a former captain with the South Vietnamese Air Force who arrived at Camp Pendleton with his wife and three children 25 years ago, when Communists seized his country’s capital. He held a large American flag that blew gently around his face and would hide the tears that were about to come. “I feel so sad.”

It was as close as he--and many others--could get to describing how they felt, when a fleet of buses brought them back on base for the first time in 25 years, to the former “tent city” that more than 50,000 refugees called home in 1975. They had been told they were going to a hotel--Hotel California, they joked now--but then they saw the tents, the water trucks and the Quonset huts. It was a temporary city. More than 150 babies were born there in seven months.

When they climbed off the buses again Sunday, they waved American flags alongside red and yellow South Vietnam flags. They looked around the former tent city and tried to remember how it was, squinting in the sun and pointing things out to their children, who were too young back then to feel much of a connection now. They shook hands with American Vietnam veterans whom they’d fought next to before, striking up conversations about combat and casualties, but mostly about newfound friendships.

Uc Van Nguyen, a Tustin resident who was a helicopter pilot in the South Vietnamese Air Force, spotted his former American advisor, Craig Mandeville, and shouted “Hey, buddy!” until they worked their way through the crowd for a strong reunion handshake. By the time they’d finished talking, the handshake had turned into a hug.

A ceremony of a different type was held Sunday in Westminster, where dignitaries made combative speeches and urged all people to band together to free Vietnam.

The crowd of about 700 at the Cultural Court shouted, “Freedom! Human Rights! Down with the Communists!” and raised American and South Vietnamese flags high into the air.

The crowd demonstrated for half a mile along Bolsa Avenue, amid honking cars and a sea of flags, shouting anti-Communist slogans.

Times staff writer Mai Tran contributed to this story.