It was on April 30,1975, barely a month after I returned to France, that Master Sergeant Juan Jose Valdez became the last marine to board the last helicopter to leave from the roof of the U.S Embassy.  Two hours later, the North Vietnamese forces rolled through the gate of the Presidential palace in Saigon, effectively ending the war.  watching on television the dramatic and tragic outcome of the end of the Vietnam War, my heart cried out to the thousands of Vietnamese ‘at risk’, not being able to flee in the final phase of the evacuation, including my family.  For years in my dreams, I would see the panic in their eyes as that last helicopter took off.

The nights disappear like bruises, as do the dead go away.  What is left is sorrow and pain, but, like paper lanterns, will they, too, one day fade away?  like flames they advance into the shadows.  saigon will pass away, it is my farewell, staying behind forever buried in my past.  Soon, I know, only darkness remains, nothing will be the same, and not for long, Saigon, you’ll be only a name and all the ghosts in the sky will fly and the smell of burning will be replaced by the scent of the frangipanis in bloom.