{"id":1106,"date":"2020-11-26T13:43:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T18:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/?p=1106"},"modified":"2023-02-19T06:17:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T11:17:20","slug":"01-the-night-we-left-saigon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/01-the-night-we-left-saigon\/","title":{"rendered":"01. The Night We Left Saigon"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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01. The Night We Left Saigon<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>

For 40 years, I\u2019ve longed for a homecoming
<\/span><\/span>To live in Vietnam for my life’s remaining years.
<\/span>My hair is fading like the morning dew\u2019s fate,
<\/span>But life is still full of challenges I must face.<\/span><\/p>

1975 was the year I fled my country
<\/span><\/span>As a single young sailor of 25, he was me.
<\/span>Forty years later, now you know my age.
<\/span>My life now is like an old silkworm\u2019s fate.<\/span><\/p>

On the night of April 29th, 1975,
<\/span><\/span>We sneaked out of Saigon a few hours before midnight.
<\/span>The Bach Dang Navy Headquarters were never in the dark,
<\/span>HQ-11 quietly pulled up her anchor, ready to depart.<\/span><\/p>

People stood still, glued to their weary eyes.
<\/span><\/span>To the flag of South Vietnam still unknowingly waving high.
<\/span>The crew worked frantically
<\/span>Hoping to reach the freedom shore safely.<\/span><\/p>

The navigational crew focused on their task.
<\/span><\/span>While Captain San made sure the ship steered safely.
<\/span>She glided by, hugging the waves in darkness
<\/span>As Bach Dang River was meandering to meet its ocean kin.<\/span><\/p>

We reached V\u0169ng T\u00e0u by daybreak on April 30, 1975.
<\/span><\/span>A thick air of suspension suffocates our fear.
<\/span>Standing by the radio for the inevitable news:
<\/span>Saigon’s surrender was our biggest fear.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m President D\u01b0\u01a1ng V\u0103n Minh
<\/span><\/span>Calling all soldiers of the Republic of South Vietnam
<\/span>To lay down your weapons for the sake of peace
<\/span>For Saigon has been seized by the North Vietnamese.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

It\u2019s over! All my hopes and dreams.
<\/span><\/span>What was left of my five years of service?
<\/span>Only my dog tag still hung on my neck.
<\/span>And the soiled Navy uniform that begged to be shed.
<\/span>###<\/span><\/p>

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01. The Night We Left Saigon For 40 years, I\u2019ve longed for a homecoming To live in Vietnam for my life’s remaining years. My hair is fading like the morning dew\u2019s fate, But life is still full of challenges I must face. 1975 was the year I fled my country As a single young sailor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-sailor-named-lay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1106"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=1106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}