Rescued from the Brink of Death: a Refugee's Gratitude
| Publication year | 2017 |
| Author | LAUREN VUONG, ESQ. |
LAUREN VUONG, ESQ.
I was seven years old when compassion saved my life. Please join in my journey of survival, perseverance, and gratitude.
Imagine a three year-old girl who worships her father because he fights for his country. One day she wakes up and finds him gone. She's told that he will be away for a few months. Three years later, he's still not home. When the little girl is six she walks all day to the border between Vietnam and Cambodia to see her father. When she gets there, a barbed wire fence separates her and a man faintly resembling her father. When he finally approaches he's different, not the shining hero of her memory.
One night after her father's release the family quietly slip out of their house. They have in their possession: a small bag of dried foods, a few gold chains sewn into their hemlines, and her father's Army dog tag. They bring the dog tag to establish her father's affiliation with the U.S. Army. They board a tiny fishing boat to flee communist Vietnam.
I was that little girl.
We escaped during the monsoon season, hoping the unpredictable weather would decrease coastal patrols, thus helping us elude capture. The estimated travel time to the Philippines, in good weather, was seven days; we had only two.
The next days are now a blur in my mind, but I recall smells of human waste and vomiting so awful I thought I would die. I remember black walls of water that threatened to engulf our boat. I remember hunger so painful it took on its own shape, dark and twisting, like a rope around all my organs.
When, on the tenth day, the skies cleared, we were lost, depleted of fuel, food, and water. Imminent death seemed certain. Then, miraculously, a U.S.-flagged ship, the LNG Virgo, spotted us. We were rescued on June 29, 1980.
Since that day, the skyscraping image of the 12-story-high, three-football-field-long behemoth flying the American flag forever cemented itself in my mind as being synonymous with life and freedom.
I began intensely searching for the Virgo and her crew in 2007. I learned that Captain Hartmann Schonn, our savior, had passed away in June 2000. Undeterred, I pressed to find his family and others of the Virgo crew. I learned that Captain Schonn's family relocated to Hamburg, Germany. I also discovered that we had been aided by a U.S. Navy ship, the Sealift Antarctic. Of the 33-man Virgo crew, 9 are still alive. I have located...
To continue reading
Request your trial