Vietnamese Refugee Tells Story of Rescue by the Navy Leading to Military Service
Lan Dalat was 13 years old and living in war-torn, communist Vietnam when his parents decided to risk everything and flee the country in 1981. Facing a possible capture by the Vietnamese, or worse--death, Dalat’s family boarded a wooden fishing boat with 137 other refugees seeking a new life. The boat, designed to carry just 25 people drifted at sea for nearly two weeks. The group went days without food or water.
“Starvation had kicked in. People were talking about cannibalism and suicide,” said Lan Dalat during the Friday symposium. “Most on board wanted to survive.”
Lt. Col. Lan Dalat told this and other stories at the latest educational symposium offered by the Patriots Point Institute of History, Science and Technology. The event, "From Boat to Boots & Beyond" was held on Friday, September 30, 2016 in front a packed crowd of USS Ranger CV-61 veterans, 5th graders from the Sterling School in Greenville, SC and other visitors.
On stage, Dalat described March 20, 1981 as a hot and windless day. By this time the refugees were suffering from starvation and dehydration. Some were even beginning to hallucinate, but for a day or so, some thought they may have seen or heard airplanes flying nearby. As the sun finally set that evening, something caught their eyes.
“On the horizon we saw a metal floating city,” said Dalat. “We couldn’t believe it.” The floating city turned out to be the USS Ranger CV-61 aircraft carrier. The crew rescued all 138 people aboard the tiny fishing vessel that was stranded hopelessly in the South China Sea.
The captain of the Ranger took the refugees to a processing center in the Philippines where Dalat said life was tough and there was little food or water. Eventually, a church in Seattle, Washington sponsored Dalat’s family and they moved to the Pacific Coast of the United States. “The climate was different,” said Dalat. “The 68 degree temperatures seemed freezing. The first day of school I dressed like an Eskimo. Soon his family decided to move to Orange County, California in search of a warmer climate more like they had grown accustomed to in Vietnam.
As a teenager in California, school days were often a challenge, socially, for Dalat and his family members. Dalat told the fifth-graders of Sterling School that he was often picked for being Vietnamese and living in the United States. “There were some challenges but we made it through,” he said. And in the end, despite the lack of full acceptance by most of the Americans around him, he was thankful for the new life he had been given in a country he recognized as full of opportunity and promise. “I decided that wanted to be more American than most Americans," said Dalat.
Once grown, Dalat joined the same military that rescued him and so many others in the South China Sea, and has since earned the rank of Lt. Col. in the Army. His brother also serves in the military and his son is hoping to soon be accepted into the United States Naval Academy. “It is a family tradition now,” Dalat told the crowd. “We serve in the military.”
See gallery below for other photos from the symposium:
[gallery columns="2" size="medium" ids="7640,7638,7636,7641,7643,7642,7635,7637,7644"]