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Her escape from Saigon Photo by Steve Johnson Medford resident Agnes Truong was among those fleeing Saigon just before it fell 25 years ago today. Quarter-century after city's fall, a Medford woman looks back at her mad dash for freedom By PAUL FATTIG Agnes Truong closed her eyes, trying to push away the fear she has strived to forget for 25 years. For a moment, the Medford resident was back in her native Vietnam, remembering the turbulent times leading to the fall of Saigon. "We hear guns -- Pop! Pop! Pop! -- and we run," she said. "I hold my baby daughter tight and run as fast as I can. We don't know who is shot. We just keep running toward the plane." The Vietnamese-American woman knew their freedom -- and their lives -- were in jeopardy on the runway at Tan Son Nhat airport that evening of April 23, 1975. Now officially known as Ho Chi Minh City, although most Vietnamese still call it Saigon, it fell to the communist North Vietnamese army 25 years ago today. Cities like Hue, Da Nang, Chu Lai and Nha Trang had already fallen before Truong made her dash across the tarmac. Saigon, the site of sporadic gunfire by late April, was the last domino. She is among an estimated 1 million Vietnamese -- about 5 percent of that country's population -- who would flee, mostly to Australia, North America and Europe. Many would leave by boat, only to perish at sea. Truong was fortunate. She caught what she believes was the second to last plane to leave Saigon before the fell. Driving the exodus were fears of retribution by the communists. Indeed, nearly half a million Vietnamese would be sent to "re-education" camps by the new government. Now near retirement, Truong was initially reluctant to talk about her experience. "I don't want to remember," she said. "I don't like to think about it anymore." But Truong, who is just shy of 5 feet tall, agreed to share her story so others would better understand what some American immigrants have faced. "You have to do what you have to do to survive," she said. "When you run into an obstacle, you have to keep going. "I will talk about myself and not anybody else," she added. She was born in Hue, the ancient imperial capital. After grade school, she went to a convent school in Dalat, a city in the central highlands north of Saigon. She later attended college, earning a degree in home economics. Fluent in French, English and Vietnamese, Truong began working as a translator for various international agencies and businesses. She traveled extensively, from Asia to Europe and the United States. She went to a conference at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and to Washington, D.C., where she translated for Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. "He was very impressive," she recalled. She would even live in Japan for a few years where her daughter, Ann, was born. But her heart was in Vietnam. Hearing that peace was about to break out, she went back to Saigon in 1972. The Paris Accords were signed Jan. 31, 1973, officially ending American participation in its longest war. But the peace she hoped for was not to be. The communists were marching down from the north, battling the retreating South Vietnamese forces. By April 1975, the war had arrived in Saigon. "It was frightening," she said. "Nobody knew where they would go. They all want to go somewhere. But there were very few airplanes leaving." It took the right connections to get on those planes. "Some people connected to the Americans, who worked with the Americans, can go," she added. "But people like me, who didn't work with the Americans in Vietnam, we had no way to go." Truong had worked with the international community, not directly with the Americans. But her sister, a member of a convent caring for disabled children, told her of a plane about to leave Saigon with a load of children. "She told me to pack up and come -- we only have a half hour," Truong said. At the airport, armed South Vietnamese soldiers stopped the bus she rode on, looking for young men who might be soldiers. There were several young men on the bus. As Truong speaks and gestures, the years drop away. It's 1975 again, and she's back on the tarmac of that Saigon airport. "They wanted to check to see if there were young men on the bus. They would not let them leave. "The priest who took us, he told us to get down. He told the driver to drive through the gate, to break it down. "The buses rushed through the gate and go. We run out. We don't know who is getting shot. The soldiers are running after us, shooting." In the distance, the plane's engines roared. "It was only a few hundred yards from where the bus had stopped and where the plane was, but I thought it was an eternity. I just hold my daughter so tight and run and run." The plane was packed, three people to a seat. The air was filled with the cries of the injured and the frightened as the plane sped down the runway. "It roared off just when they were still closing the door." Saigon quickly faded from view as the plane climbed over the South China Sea. Truong and her daughter were safe. "I do not know where we are going, where we will end up. But we are out of there. That's all I know." The heavily loaded plane landed in Japan, where many of the passengers were put on another plane. Truong and her daughter flew to San Francisco, then Portland. They were taken to Mount Angel, near Salem. "I didn't know what kind of future we would have," she said. "I didn't know where I would work, what we would eat, where we would live. It was a very bad feeling." At Mount Angel, she was taken to the local abbey. They slept on floors. She was told about a potential job in a hospital in a place called Medford. "I didn't know where Medford was," she said. So within a few days of her escape from Saigon, she found herself taking an aptitude test at what is now Rogue Valley Medical Center. She was was hired in the laboratory, and she's worked there ever since. Truong would save and buy a house. Her daughter would graduate from South Medford High School in 1991, then college, becoming an aeronautical engineer. Now married to a fellow engineer, her daughter lives and works in Seattle. Agnes Truong plans to visit Vietnam this fall for the first time since she 1975. She became an American citizen in 1994. "I think I am very fortunate," she said. "I am thankful." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA