WORCESTER — It was during the fall of Saigon — the last day of the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975 — Anh Vu Sawyer and her family were picked up by a military helicopter from the rooftop of the U.S. Embassy there.
Sawyer, her parents and three siblings were among 7,000 people evacuated from the roof of the embassy during Operation Frequent Wind, and were one of the only few fortunate Vietnamese refugees able to leave the war-torn country with their family intact as communist forces from the north descended on and eventually overtook the city.
“The whole thing is a miracle because when I left Vietnam, we were in front of a large crowd of people, and I just prayed and asked God not to forget me,” said Sawyer, executive director of the Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts (SEACMA) in Worcester. “I just thought if I could make it to the gate, we would be able to climb the gate.”