On June 21, six members of the chapter – Bill Bennett, Tom Devlin, Bill Gray, Dave Gudes, Mike Najarian and Art Wong – participated in a memorial event sponsored by the Amerasian Independent Voice of America at the Wall for Father’s Day.

The Wall was decked out in yellow roses and small notes in honor of the day. Over 25 Amerasians from all parts of the country gathered at the apex of the Wall and distributed yellow roses to all participants. The group completed the event with a candlelight vigil (sadly, the candles nearly all blew out in the wind) at the Women’s Memorial.

The theme our hosts presented, based on Father’s Day, has been expressed as follows: “Dearest Dad, Even though you did not know that I exist in this world, I still love you, wishing and longing for the day I meet you. Growing up as an orphan with miserable life, I always crave for a family. I dream of the relationship between father and son even I know that impossible to look for you [sic]. Today is Father’s Day, where ever you are, alive or in heaven, I wish you healthy happiness, lots of laughter. God Bless You!”

The Amerasians reflected a remarkable racial diversity – people who would be regarded as Asian on K Street and as Caucasian on Tu Do Street and people who had varying degrees of African appearance. Several (all participants being between 33 and 44 years old)brought their own children, who appeared predominantly Asian. Most spoke English with some degree of accent. Some spoke little English. Their newsletter was primarily written in Vietnamese. Perhaps the most diverse person was Tara Leaman, the tall daughter of an unknown African-American serviceman, who hardly displayed a trace of Asian ancestry and who was adopted and raised by white Memnonite parents in Lancaster, Pa.  A native speaker of English, she is now a public interest attorney in Silver Spring.

Speeches and remarks were delivered at the Wall by participants, in both Vietnamese and English. Dave Gudes and Bill Bennett both delivered short remarks on behalf of the chapter.

The Amerasians all share a huge antipathy towards the Communists. Those who spent their childhood in Vietnam have vivid memories of the discrimination and hostility directed at them as the living reminders of the hated American soldiers. Many spoke of having been purposely consigned to the status of illiterates. Haunting nearly all of them was the question: who is my birth father? One of them in heavily accented English asked us how to spell his birth father’s name, as it was relayed to him by his mother. From the pronunciation he gave, the name could have been Shepherd – or Shaeffer – or any of the numerous variant spelling of either of these phonetic names. The current president of the sponsor organization, Jimmy Miller, was lucky: his grandmother had saved a letter from his birth father, one James Miller, of Fayetteville, N.C. Several phone calls later, he established contact with his father, a retired SGM with the 82d Airborne. He carries his father’s name and today has a good relationship with his widowed stepmother.

The Maryland Vietnamese Mutual Association, a participating organization, is lobbying Congress for legislation to ease the immigration of an estimated 500 Amerasians remaining in Vietnam. At present, any would-be immigrant has to present documentation, such as a letter, connecting him or her to the American birth father. All of us could readily see the futility of this requirement: what American retained contact with his Vietnamese sexual partner after DEROS? Even if such contact was kept up, how many mothers of Amerasian children would have destroyed these documents to avoid the wrath of the Communists? And how many mothers abandoned their children – a significant number of the participants we encountered were raised in orphanages.

First Update On June 25, Jimmy Miller, wrote the president of our chapter: “On behalf of AIV, I want to say THANK YOU to you and all members of VVA who came to support and attended our Vietnam Veterans Remembrance Service at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall on June 21^st and stay with us the whole time to twilight. “We want you to know that it was our great honor for having you as Vietnam Veterans of America on that day. It made our tribute service to Vietnam Veterans Fallen Soldiers far more meaningful. “Please forward our THANK YOU message to the VVA, and we look forward to working together in the futures. “We are proud children of Vietnam Veterans and citizens of the land of the FREE, the land of the BRAVE!!”  P.S. Nguyet Lam is on the way to Vietnam to help Amerasians who are still left behind.”

Second Update Tara Leaman and Nguyet Lam participated in the August Wall washing. Lam, back from Vietnam, reported that she had conducted a seminar in that country on human trafficking for the benefit of the Amerasians still in country. More contact between the organized Amerasian groups and our chapter is anticipated.