No relation. They are really amazing folks and the leading effort and community leading effort behind moving voices and behind this evening tonight. It is amazing to have worked with them the last few weeks in putting together this event. Dee dee is a daughter of street a nam war refugees. Shes an attorney. She is also an alum. And this makes me really, really proud. She will enter the army j. A. G. For this friday. This is really her last big event in civilian life. [ applause ]. And she will ship out to forth benning on friday. So that is it. Goodbye to civilian life here for a while. And u of l alum and masters from kent school of social work. And she came as a refugee as well with her family in 1994. So without further ado, please welcome our two moderators. And im looking forward to an exciting evening. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is dede and my colleague is tao. We are not related. Its just a common last name. We are both with moving voices. Moving voices, its our mission to bring more attention to the South Vietnamese message. South vietnam risked everything for freedom. Its often a perspective that is overlooked in our public discussion about vietnam war. So we are so thrilled tonight to help the university of louisville put together unheard tales of the vietnam war, South Vietnamese perspective. We have a great panel here with us. They serve in the republic of vietnam. They have Amazing Stories of the vietnam war and their journey to kentucky. So im going to go ahead and introduce our speakers. Dr. Gary tran was a cabinet member for the republic of vietnam during the vietnam war. Today he is a veterinarian and operates a Reading School in louisville, kentucky. He is also the first vietnamese american to be a kentucky colonel. [ applause ]. Next we have mr. Wen, an american trained pilot in the air force of the republic of vietnam. Today he works for Catholic Charities where he helps refugees in louisville. [ applause ]. Mr. Lee was an american trained pilot in the air force of the republic of vietnam. Today he is an aunt in louisville and haefl involved in the Vietnam Veterans activities and community service. [ applause ]. Dr. Quay tran was in the army of the republic of vietnam. Today he works as a doctor at fort knox. [ applause ]. And finally we have mrs. Hou tran when she married during the war. Today she and her husband reside in elizabethtown, kentucky. Like dede said before, we have five people up here with the name of tran. None of us are related. Except for the married couple. I hope theyre related. But not in that way. All right. So we want to begin tonights conversation with a start of the vietnam war. Dr. Gary tran, you were a veterinary student at the university of oklahoma when the vietnam war broke out. How did you learn about the war overseas and how did you feel about your country going to war . Thank you, dede. Before i say anything, i would like to take this opportunity to convey to our brave veterans, our deep appreciation and profound gratitude for your noble sacrifice during the war. [ applause ]. I learned from the war from tv as a student at osu, like most americans at that time. It was the first tv war, as you remember. Every day at 7 00 i would go to the tv for news of the war. And i was very worried for my family because we live in the countryside where the war was happening. Of course we saw daily death and destruction. And the feeling was very very sad and very a apprehensive. And i was remember i was trying to study so is hard to finish the program. I studied as fast as i could so i could go home. You mentioned that your family was from the countryside. Youre the son of a farmer. Eventually you went back to vietnam to serve as a highranking bureaucrat. Can you tell us about why they were important to the war. My father was a Poultry Farmer and raised chickens. So when i came to this country i wanted to be taught in poultry science and later veterinary medici medicine. We were the first in what they call the Leadership Training Program sponsored by usaid. At that time every year they send is a dozen young vietnamese that just graduated from high school to go and study different field in the United States. It was called leadership training. There were about a dozen of these programs a all through the war years. Of course there were other students sent here to study other fields also. But our group were very special. Because from these groups a lot of high officials in the government were selected. I was lucky in the way that all the major agricultural programs of the republic of vietnam at that time were either supervised or reported to me directly. And later on i will mention a few of these programs for you. The one program that was the most important and the most striking was the land reform program. And it was so revolutionary that taylor, the professor of vietnamese studies at Cornell University, said that it was the major achievement of the republic of vietnam. The details of that program i have to wait until my colleagues have a chance to answer so that i can have time to go over that program with you. So as the vietnam war escalated, South Vietnam, like the United States sorry. Can you hear me better now . So as the vietnam war escalated, South Vietnam, like the United States, enlisted the draft. You were drafted into the military as a military doctor. How did you and your family feel when you were drafted . I think that before we get into the draft in vietnam at that time, we need to understand the atmosphere in which the vietnamese live at that time. Every family has people in the army. Nobody is spared that. By that i mean if you are a teacher or professor at school, you have to be in the army to learn about military training. And after that they reassign you to work in the university or do Certain School or you go back and become a doctor. So everybody in the 60, 70, 80 families have people some way, somehow connected to the army at some time. So i grew up in that atmosphere. And then i finished med school. The reason i was able to finish med school is because i have a waiver to go to school. If anybody feail during the yea then you are drafted into the army right away. I had friends who were drafted in the middle of the year. And so i finished Medicine School in 74. In early 75, after i recently married my wife at the end of 74. I was drafted in january of 75. So thats the way we live. And a little bit anxious but not very surprised. And then my family said because everybody in the family, my father was retired at the time. My brother was already in the army. So there is really nothing particular so it was very normal for that time period . Yeah. Everybody is in the army. Mr. Lee, you had a different experience. You actually volunteered to join the air force after you graduated from high school. So why did you decide to volunteer . Yeah. You know, as the doctor has said about that, every family, young people, some way, somehow have to get into the medical field or with any connections. According to the army, you have to be drafted. But for the navy and air force, its not draft. Its volunteer. So if you were drafted into the army and after you finish the military training, you then apply for the job in air force or in the navy. So thats why for me directly volunteer to the air force. Thats my case. Okay. Like most pilots, you were sent to america to finish your training. Just as mr. Wen to your right did. Can you talk about some of your military training in america, mr. Lee. Okay. When i was young, i think i was about 11 or 12 years in middle school. In my neighborhood there is a lot of member of the air force. They have a pistol and on the other side a knife. It looked frightening. Sunglasses. Rayban, yeah. Cool. It was very cool at that time. So i dreamt to be a pilot at that time. And when i went out to high school, i present that to my father. My father is 15year veteran of the army. He advised me, okay, if you want to join the air force, it depends on you as your future. You have total decision about that. But you have to study hard. You have to exercise more so you can get physically fit. And finally in 1972 they got the campaign at that time. They have the last member for the air force. And i applied for that. After five days of physical examination with a group of 150 people, only 23 people got into the air force. The rest will be going to the army school. The army officer instead of air force officer. I love that you have to be sent over to america for training. Thats a good thing. So you can open your mind to the world. When we join the air force, we have more opportunity to learn about american culture. We were sent to Lackland Air Force base under the management of the air force. To train over there. And after four months and we passed several exams as well. And they send us to flight school. So after you both did your training, you mr. Wen did your training in america. You came back to vietnam to serve. 60 psq back to serve as a gunship pilot. To serve as a can you tell us about your most memorable combat experience. I was the first in South Vietnam air force. We provided fire support to all four military areas in South Vietnam. Let me tell you a little bit about i flew. I flew one night in a gunshot. It was an aircraft converted to gunship. This aircraft provided low fire support for South Vietnamese with the ability to fire up 6,000 rounds per minute from its guns. Very deadly. Submission was to attack. One night on november 27, 1971, it was thanksgiving day. We found a convoy of five jets. This is a rare catch for the black raven. The test disappeared in the cloud of dust. And i cannot forget was when the gi about to be over were in the air fighting. We didnt want an f5. Get me a black raven. That was happened one night in the summer of 1972. After our boss was on the border of cambodia and vietnam. The vickram attacked. We were outnumbered. There were about 100 in the camp. We came in, dropped a flare to identify our attackers. I saw hundreds of them who tried to get in the camp. I heard on the radio our friends voice. Closer, closer, closer. They had antiaircraft guns. I showered them with thousands of rounds until i ran it of ammunition. Another black raven came to replace us. When i went again back to the base, we found we had been hit. There were four holes on the aircraft. And on this morning i knew we were going to pay a very, very high price for the attack last night. The message we heard on the radio was we wont be here with you. And it made us feel very good when we heard that. Thank you. [ applause ]. As many know, the vietnam war produced huge number of casualties. When we talk about South Vietnam actually around 250,000 of south vie aetna vietnamese soldiers were lost. Mr. Lee was a cia operative and member of the South Vietnamese special forces. In this clip he will talk about losing his friends. Do you want to turn down the lights . No lights. Okay. All right. For anyone on our panel, what are your thoughts after watching this clip . Actually, to this clip, i want to give my opinion that the war is always bad. But we have to fight a war if it come. And right now the war has several faces. By intelligence or i. T. , Something Like that. So be careful about that. We have to fight the war, any war, to preserve the peace like that. We prevent the war by preparing for the war. And right now aft people, vietnamese people see it now. They try to fight with the communist government right now. To get the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion. We dont want to fight them but we want to find any means so we can get the freedom for your people in vietnam and everybody in the world as well. Thank you. With us, we will fight. You know, sometime in the morning we sit together. We have breakfast. We drink coffee. Were joking. But, you know, at noon, i heard he got shot down. He got shut down. Never come back. So you see your friend in the morning. At noon, afternoon, you heard he got shot down. This is terrible. So that is the world. The world no one wants to go, yes. But with us, we have to do it. We have to stand against the communists because we have to fight the communist aggression. But unfortunately we lost the war. I would like to share with you some of my experience when i worked for. I had the privilege of taking care of Many American soldier who come from afghanistan, iraq. And many, many suffer from ptsd. Thats what i see the most. And what hurt me the most is many of the wife, when these people come back, they dont recognize them anymore. These people come back really a different person. And many left them. Thats what i find out when i take care of these people. Even though they come back alive from the war, but this will probably affect them for their whole life. Its lying the men that you see in here. At this age we are still affected through the war that we went through. The cause of the war was very high. So the United States military withdrew its support of South Vietnam in 1973. For dr. Gary tran, how do you feel when the america withdrew . For us, it was a very puzzling situation. Because all along we were told that the United States would support us in our life and death, struggle against against the evil empire, which is communism. But all of a sudden were left without a lot of low gist cal support to fight during the last year of the war. And it was very disheartening. Because i think if we would have had the support that president nixon promised to the support us if the communists violated the court he would retaliate, he would retaliate severely. But that was not forthcoming. So even though we have the will and the manpower to carry on, we could not because of the lack of Logistical Support for the end of the war. Imagine we could not even get 300 million through congress to buy gasoline for our airplane and ammunition for our soldiers. Our enemy military got aid from russia, the soviet union. This is why one of the big reasons we lost the war. Eventually sigh gone, the capital of South Vietnam, fell on april 30th, 1975. That date marked the end of the vietnam war. Its a very important date thats engraved in many of our minds. Mrs. Tran, on that date, april 30th, 1975, where were you and what were you doing . I lived in saigon since 1954 when the geneva treaty decided to have our country in two parts. The north we lost to the communists and the south to the nationalists. And my family since they had heard about experience with communist. My parents at the time were very young. 36 and 32 with seven children aging from 11 years old to 4 months old. We left our home from the north and moved to the south to be able to live in freedom. We already had experience with the communists even struggling to start a new life in the south. After a few years my parents would be able to prosper. And all of us went to college. I was in the second year of Pharmacy School when i met my husband in med school, who was a medical student through the catholic youth. We waited until we got through with college. In married in may 1974. My husband was dropped after he finished school. So he eventually became lieutenant. And the fall of saigon came before the full five days we heard from his father that an uncle who worked for the cia, and he offered that we can go by plane to the u. S. But theres a lot of people on the list. So we wouldnt be able to go on the first day. It was friday. So we came back home. And then on monday, april 28th, his son called and asked us to come back to waiting for the bus to go to the airport. So it was on tuesday, the 29th. We were in his office and waiting for the bus. But around noon we listened to the radio that the South Vietnam government surrendered. So we hurried back home to my parentss home. And at that time the whole big family, my parents, my uncle, my two auntss family, grandparents, we all prepared to go to the commercial pier to where the ships dock to find a way to get on the ship to feed the country. Because we have a big family and we had just cause, so we divided by two groups. The first group went to the pier first. And then planning to go back home to pick up the rest of us. But when the first group came to the pier, they saw the atmosphere. It appeared everyone wanted to flee the country. So at that time my father thought about the rest of us still at home. So he decided to go back home. That was on the 29th. On the 30th of april, the communist army invade to the president ial palace. The situation at times was not settled. So we still everyone still want to go to flee the country. Because there is a rumor that the 7th fleet of the america still in the south china sea. But theres some hesitation because they say the communists might caught us before we get out of there. So we, for a second time, decided to stay. And then life goes on. I came back to the pharmacy. And my husband, he went to hiss office to practice for a month. And then in june 1975 the communist government called all of the soepblgs of them to be present and after three days to release them. You bring up a really important point about the reeducation camp. On our panel we have two people who went to the great education camp. And the reeducation camp was a way fort North Vietnamese to seek revenge upon those who served for South Vietnam. They would imprison them. They would torture them. They would forcibly indoctrinate them. We would like to ask mr. Wen, after the war you were placed in a reeducation camp for four and a half years. Can you describe what life is like in a reeducation camp. Yes. I was in prison for four and a half years in the reeducation labor camp in North Vietnam. While there, the enemies controlled the visitors by using what they call the technique. A bowl of rice with one tiny piece of meat once a month. The technique was decide to keep everyone so hungry they could