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Wednesday, October 21, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Vietnam families reunited Some Amerasian children are rejoining U.S. fathers
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — A former U.S. Army medic arrived in the United States yesterday with the daughter he fathered in wartime Vietnam 15 years ago and recently rescued from a life pedaling peanuts on the beach.
Barry Huntoon and Tran Tli Tuyet Mai stepped off a plane at San Francisco International Airport with two other Amerikaner teen-agers.
"I'm very happy," said Mai, as she and Huntou left the custom check at the airport. Mai was greeted by the cheerful maids, and the couple's infant daughter.
"I want to go to school," Mai said when asked what she first wanted to do in the United States. Mai can neither read nor write.
"I always believed I would see this day." Hunton said.
Huntou met his half-Vietnamese daughter for the first time Oct. 12, when he went to Ho Chi Minh City to bring her out of communist Vietnam. He lost contact with Mai and her mother after the end of the war in 1975, then saw his daughter's photograph in Life magazine two years ago.
"I'm very happy. I missed my father," said Mai as she and her father waited for a flight to San Francisco.
The other teen-agers, Loan and Van Nguyen Vernon, received emotional embraces and pink roses from their father, Marc Vernon. Vernon had not seen his daughters since 1975.
"It's going to be a while' before the girls feel comfortable in public, said Vernon, stroking their long black hair. "They're real nervous."
Vernon, of Albuquerque, N.M., and his wife, Lien, left Vietnam together 12 years ago and have tried desperately to get the girls out of the country since then. Vernon worked with an Army intelligence unit in Vietnam in 1971 and 1972, and met his wife while she was working as a waitress in a non-commissioned officer club in Pleiku.
Bruce Burns of the Ameresian Registry in Santa Clara County said the girls have lived a modest life with an English-speaking aunt, Lan Nguyen, in Ho Chi Minh City. The aunt also is coming to town for Christmas, which includes another daughter, Kerry, who was born in the United States.
"I just wish every father (of an Amerasian) could sit with his child for just five minutes." Huntoon, a 38-year old sales representative from Paradise, Calif., said before leaving Bangkok. "they're so beautiful. All they want is to know who their father
is."
The three girls are among thousands of children fathered by U.S. servicemen and government employees during the United State's decade-and-a-half military invasion. Hanoi has rejected the children as legacies of a bitter war and said they all should go to the United States.
Despite frequent bickering with Vietnamese authorities, the United States has resettled about 4,000 Amerians in an official migration program in recent years. U.S. officials say about 10,000 remain in Vietnam.
Huntoon said Mai, poor and with no education, had been living with her mother in the port of Vung Tau near Ho Chi Minh City. The city was called Saigon when it was the capital of the U.S.-backed South Vietnam government, which fell in April 1975.
"Her life's been really tough, really hard," Huntoon said. "She sold peanuts on the beach, and I asked her if she was able to go swimming and she never could because she was there to work and not to play. She's never played with a doll, with other children."
Children.
He said she left Vietnam with only a small bag containing nothing but letters and photographs.
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3. Dean's Stamp:
October 26 - November 6
8:30-5:00
Rotunda of Strong Hall
2. Advising:
2 weeks only!
October 26 - November 6
Sewer Function '87
Complete Line of
Radio Controlled
- Cars
Magazines, Supplies.
- Boats
and Accessories!
- Helicoptors
- Airplanes
LIBERAL ARTS & SCIENCES Undergraduate ENROLLMENT PROCEDURES SPRING 1988
1. Enrollment Card Handout:
October 22 and 23
9:00-4:30
Kansas Union Ballroom
Picture I.D. Required
MAIN ENROLLMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATES SPRING 1988 (Graduate Students see page 2 of the Timetable)
CAUTIONS
- Advising and Dean's Approval Stamp Periods END EARLY (Nov. 6). Make an appointment soon to see your adviser.
- Plan your schedule well! List a good selection of alternate courses.
- Bring signed yellow Special Permission/ Approval cards for courses coded I or P!
KEY DATES
- Enrollment Card Pickup:
Oct.21 and 22: Schools of Business and Social Welfare.
Oct.22 and 23: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Applied English Center.
Oct.26 through 30: All other schools
- Advising Period: Oct.26 through Nov. 6: Two weeks only! Pre-professional School Co-Advising: See Spring Timetable.
- Dean's Approval Stamp:
Oct.26: First day.
Nov.6: Last day.
- Enrollment: Appointments begin Friday, Oct. 30. Check your enrollment card.