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Saskatoonʼs REAL Community Newspaper
Volume 16, Issue 15, Week of April 17, 2017
Fleeing Vietnam
When the U.S. left, life was never the same Kim Tran was just seven years old when the Vietnam War ended, but her memories of the time between 1975 and 1980 are vivid. (Photo by Sandy Hutchinson) Cam Hutchinson Saskatoon Express This is the first story in a series. im Tran gets goosebumps whenever she hears the sound of a helicopter. She remembers the sunny evening in DC041725 Darlene
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April 1975 when she was sitting on the branch of a tree eating her dinner. She loved taking her supper outside. It was beautiful in the yard and it took her away from the political discussions which dominated conversations inside the house. The Vietnam War was table talk around the
world, but Kim Tran and her family were living it. The beauty of that night suddenly turned dark. The sun went missing in an eclipse of helicopters. Hundreds of them lifted into the air from a military base close to her home in Saigon.
“The Americans were leaving,” she said. “They were taking off. It was so black. Even to this day that sound terrifies me.” Tran, who was seven at the time, had been told to run to a shelter her father built (Continued on page 13)