“I was the last one left in my army camp in Da Nang. I had the conscience to stay and fight so I remained when everyone else left. This night, the 28th of March, the guerillas bombed Da Nang. They had infiltrated Da Nang and made a revolt. Everywhere in Da Nang there were bombs going off including the airport. So people got scared and fled.

When I saw my camp was empty, I left. I went to Tien Sa, the naval base at Da Nang to look for a boat. Along the shore I see many horrible things-I see a pregnant woman dead on the beach. The bombs killed many civilians.

There was an American boat off shore we could see but the communists had taken our ARVN boat and fired at the American boat to keep it away. I didn’t have any way to get to it.

I was wearing civilian clothes that I picked up—there were many clothes along the shore. I tore up my military papers and threw them in the sea. I was 30 years old and the communists knew that everyone around that age was in the military.

The guerillas who had infiltrated Da Nang grabbed me. From 8 to 6 o’clock I had nothing to eat or drink. After 6 o’clock the tanks arrived-many, many NVA tanks. I was captured along with some naval officers and marines. There were hundreds of us.

They transferred us from camp to camp. We didn’t stay in any camp for very long. We had to walk. We had no shoes. My feet were bloody. Many camps, many camps, 7 years 3 months in the camps.”