European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 24, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A a Quot of by Ken Clauson Bremerhaven Bureau in a few weeks the americans will lock the Gate Tor the last time at their Small air Force Post on the Edge of the town of Fless Isch Oldendorf in Northern Germany. They la leave behind friends and memories and a Man whose Fate has been tied to decisions made in Washington for decades. When Security guard Mai Ngoc Sang turns in his weapon and says goodbye hell  thinking about what his future holds now that the americans Are leaving a again. His hair is streaked with Gray but he looks younger than his 59 years moving with the animation of someone much younger. A proud Man he a Quick to smile and his Fate and misfortunes rarely show in his. Face. Sixteen years ago he stood on a Bridge a few Miles North of Saigon watching thousands of people Stream across running from the communist army advancing from the North. Mai was a major in the South vietnamese army an Engineer company commander with orders to blow up that Bridge and two others. But it was the afternoon of april 29, 1975, and South Vietnam was collapsing under the North s final thrust toward Saigon. A the sky was full of helicopters evacuating High ranking officers and privileged civilians. Mai could t reach his commanders to ask them what he should do now that he could t get the people off the Bridge. His commanders had already bailed out. Mai told his men to go Home. Destroying the Bridges would kill thousands of civilians and would Only delay the inevitable. For the three years since the americans began pulling their troops out the South vietnamese army had tried to hold off the communists alone but with steadily shrinking Materiel support Mai says. Quot we had no ammunition anymore no Gas Lubric Ahon a nothing. We had a lot of equipment had a lot of air planes a lot of tanks but had no spare parts. Quot my Friend a Pilot told me he saw a lot of Viet Cong units when he flew but he had no  Mai still Spears with some bitterness about the wars end. In his View the americans turned their backs on an ally it was no longer convenient to help. He is also bitter about the dishonourable behaviour of some senior vietnamese officers who abandoned their men and their country. His career has been connected to the military in some Way for his entire adult life. Born in phenom phen Cambodia of vietnamese parents he moved to Saigon at 19 and was drafted into the South vietnamese army. He graduated As an Engineer officer from South Vietnam s military Academy its equivalent to West Point and in 1957 spent a year at the . Army Engineer school at fort Belvoir a. When the communists took Contro of the country in 1975. They announced that South vietnamese enlisted soldiers would need a couple Days of  lieutenants and captains would require a week of the program and majors and above 30 Days. A week after walking away from the crowded Bridge near Long bin Mai was in the hands of the communists. He expected to be Home soon. It would be five years. Mai and his fellow officers were taken to North Vietnam to what the communists called re education Camps and what he Calls jails. The curriculum consisted of political harangues and manual labor a mostly cutting Bamboo All Day and growing vegetables. To y were rarely Given meat and Only a couple of times a me the were they fed Rice a further. Insult for asians to whom Rice is a dietary Staple. They mostly lived on Sweet potatoes and a few other vegetables Mai says. Rice was reserved for Quot the people a the Good communists who supposedly deserved it More than the inmates. Quot for five years we Are All the time hungry a he says. When you Are hungry you forget everything. You forget family you forget friends you forget about Home. You can Only think about How you Are  he bows and nods his head subservient by while mimicking How he and his fellow inmates parroted the teaching of their political instructors. Quot of yes communism Good Quot he says Bobbing his head and sarcastically drawing out the last word. His wife was Able to visit him once for 90 minutes after a 10-Day trip from the South. They talked loudly from about 10 feet apart in the presence of a guard. No embracing allowed no touching. After working five years in the Forest and the Fields obediently mouthing the political platitudes he was released with the understanding he would put his engineering training to use helping the communists a rebuild the country. He stayed with his family for 20 Days. While Mai was in the Camps near the chinese Border the communists threw his wife and six surviving children out of their House in Saigon. One of his children died As an infant another died of an illness while he was in the Camps. The family s future looked Bleak at Best he says and As the offspring of a former enemy of the state his Mai Ngoc Sang is a Security guard at the air Force Post in Hess Isch Oldendorf in Northern Germany. The Post will close in a few weeks leaving him without a Job. Children would never be allowed to attend school beyond the elementary grades. He knew he would be Able to do Little for his family unless he cooperated and worked for the government. His intense hatred of the communists would make this difficult if not impossible. His Only Chance of helping his Quot. Family he thought would be from outside the country. With his son Mai Ngoc due then 13. He joined a group of people planning to escape the country by boat. Their Odds of survival were slim they knew. They were 132 people crammed tight As a Ball of Rice into the hold and on the deck of a fishing boat barely 30 feet Long. Battered by heavy swells in the South China sea they had been out of food and water for Days when finally rescued by a German Relief ship. During the 12 Days they floated in the sea Mai figured his Chance s of survival were about one in 100, he says. A Large Black and White photo of their boat at the moment of Rescue now hangs on his living room Wall in Hamelin Germany. In the photo with the group of shocked survivors he looks dazed a yet elated. Two refugee processing teams met them in Singapore one representing the United states and one the United nations. The americans rejected his application to go to the states saying he had no sponsor. A How could i have sponsor a he asks. Quot i was in the jail for five years and Only Home for 20 Days. I Don t have Contact with anyone in the states in that  he could t Sway the immigration officials despite telling them he was a former officer and ally who had attended an american military school. He and his son ended up in West Germany where the government settled them in Hamelin. After attending language school for a year he sought work on the local Economy but found nothing. Then he was offered a Job As a Gate guard at the american air station in nearby Messich Oldendorf. Accepting the Job was difficult at first. Although it enabled him to Send Money to his family still in Vietnam being a Gate guard for the americans was painfully humiliating at first he admits now. He d been writing to vietnamese friends in America who were also former officers. They told him that being a Gate guard for the americans was a serious loss of face for a former officer and graduate of the military Academy. A a in a thinking and thinking and thinking Quot he says now. Quot what can i do have Job and help family lose face Quot the warm acceptance by the american military Community helped ease the pain however and he Speaks fondly of the friends he made and of How he kept Candy in his briefcase for the children coming through the Gate who reminded Hinr of his own family still in Vietnam. He sent them Money when he could a few dollars at a time hidden inside toothpaste tubes and the lining of boxes containing Small gifts. His family was struggling having lost its ration privileges once the government discovered he had escaped. In 1984, after years of bribing government officials in Vietnam his wife and four children were allowed to leave the country. A daughter who had Given up Hope of Ever emigrating had recently married and was not allowed to join them she and her husband and their 6-year-old daughter Are now visiting Mai in Hamelin. He a working with the German government to keep them in Germany although Mai s family has been reunited his struggle for Tranquility has not ended a few years ago he gave a kidney to a son who had a kidney disease. He wishes he had another to give his we who receives daily dialysis treatments. She s on a waiting list for donors. The son he escaped with was Laid off from his Job As an Auto Mechanic this month. As for himself Mai says he has Little Chance of Ever getting another Job. He s too old for the Job Market he says and it s already tight because of German unification. Of the three other civilian Gate guards at the air station two have already found work he says and the other is the spouse of an airman stationed there. Although his employment prospects Are grim the transition to unemployment wont be too drastic at first. Since he worked for the americans for More than 10 years he will receive Severance benefits from the German unemployment office and the american government equal to 100 percent of his pay for the first year he says and 90 percent for three More years. Nonetheless he would prefer to have a Job. It. Col. Gary Chamberlain commander of the 600th combat support so at Hess Isch Oldendorf is trying to find employment in the area for Mai but this is proving difficult. And a military chaplain who has returned to the states is trying to find a sponsor for him. Although Mai might find work with the americans at another base in Southern or Central Germany he s reluctant to move because that would mean pulling his wife out of the medical treatment network that knows her Case so Well. In some ways he fits the classic stereotype of the struggling immigrant who Hopes for a better life for his children and grandchildren a life that he Hopes can be achieved through a Good education. He admits he pushed them hard to do Well in school telling them he has nothing else to leave them when he Dies. And like millions of other uprooted people he genuinely sees America As the land of Opportunity. Its a big place where anything is possible if you Are willing to work for it he says. A a he realizes however that he May never get there. He often Speaks of losing his country and while his heart is still in Vietnam he admits he is fortunate to have had a Job to have Good friends have his family intact and to be Able to live in a free country. For those things he is. Grateful. He still holds to a shred of Hope of a better future for Vietnam. He talks quietly of resistance groups near Vietnam a Western Borders with Laos and Cambodia who Are waiting for the communist government to falter an event he feels is inevitable. Quot maybe not in one year maybe not in 10 years but  air Force Post shuts Down c losing the Gates on Mai Ngoc Sang Mai Ngoc Sang with his granddaughter Ngoc no Nguyen 3. The former South vietnamese military officer spent five years in communist a Are education Quot Camps before fleeing Vietnam. Page 14 the stars and stripes wednesday july 24, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page f