My father was a missionary in Vietnam.
We had to leave before Saigon fell. In fact my dad evacuated off of a BOQ in a helo and landed on a carrier. They pushed his helo off in the sea to make more room.
Interesting point...at that time I was an exchange student for a week at the high school at Subic and was staying with the base commanders family. He woke me in the middle of the night and showed me a bay full of lit up ships off loading stuff. He said “those ships are going to Vietnam for the evacuation. May be your Dad will get on one”. It was surreal.
Next thing I know he put me on a plane for the states where my mom had gone.
I’ll tell you about my bus ride from Manila to Olongapo and walking through that place at dusk to the front gate of subic. Quite an eye opener for a 15 year old!
Those are some experiences...wow.
Yes...Olongapo was an eye-opener. A bit different what might have been seen in Saigon (I only landed at Da Nang on a MAC flight as we went home) but Olongapo...well, it WAS a bit debauched for certain. I could smell the Olongapo River from my house miles away.
You were probably at George Dewey Jr/Sr High School? Memories, for sure.
A lot of consequential things going on during that historic time, and you had a front row seat...(ahem...not as front row as SOME...:)