Vietnamese lives changed forever during Operation New Life

BY SKYLER OBISPO
Journal Staff

Operation New Life has been described by many as one of the largest humanitarian evacuations in U.S. military history. Guam received thousands of Vietnam War refugees following the fall of Saigon, and the wider Republic of Vietnam in 1975. 

According to the Operation New Life after action report, published by the Commander in Chief Representative of Guam and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, R.J. Carroll, that same year, between April 23 and Aug. 26, 1975 111,919 refugees transited through Guam. 

The refugees were housed in quonset huts and camps at Asan, Orote Point, and Andersen Air Force Base. 

Most refugees were relocated to the U.S. mainland, but some who were adopted or sponsored by local families remained on the island.

Now 50 years later, the impact of the operation on Guam’s infrastructure, government, and culture are being remembered. 

Norman S. Yuen is the owner of Salut Guam, a fine wines and spirits importer and wholesaler for brands like Amuse Bouche, Alpha Omega, and Au Sommet. Yuen and his wife Julie came to Guam as refugees in 1979, four years after Operation New Life had concluded. In 1975, Yuen was 19 years old and his father fled Vietnam as an Operation New Life refugee. 

Yuen told the Journal that their first attempt to escape failed but they were able to successfully flee post-war Vietnam on their second try. “We made it — landing on Guam with only $50 in our pocket and a determination to start over,” he said. 

His early years on Guam were shaped by hard work and opportunity he said. Yuen started as a helper at JMI, then moved to JWS as an air conditioner repair technician, and then became a manager at Top Enterprises. 

Yuen said he is greatly appreciative of his employers and mentors who guided him along the way during that period.

In 1990, he founded Nortech Appliance, which distributed brands like Whirlpool and Tappan. Yuen was the first to introduce AC brands like Midea, Gree, and TCL to the island. He also brought the Sears brand to the island and after the Sears-Kmart merger, he chose to retire. 

His work in the 1980s had introduced him to his current wine distribution venture. 

“I discovered the joy and richness that comes with a glass of quality wine — an experience that inspired me to begin importing premium wines to Guam.” 

Yuen, reflecting on his life, told the Journal that his wife’s support was the baseline from which he saw much of his success in his career. 

“Throughout this journey, Julie’s unwavering support has been my foundation,” he said. “We’ve built our life here together — through challenge and growth — with gratitude always in our hearts.” 

Today, Yuen says that a good glass of wine is a reminder of resilience, hope, and love and how far he and his wife have come since leaving Vietnam nearly 50 years ago. 

“Guam gave us a second chance, and I’ll always be grateful for that,” he said. 

Daniel D. Swavely was the chief of operations for Guam’s Department of Public Works during Operation New Life. Swavely told the Journal that his primary role was to coordinate the mass transit of refugees and to manage the handling and collection of garbage in the camps around the island. 

He said that DPW at the time used approximately 220 school buses to transport the refugees on a 24/7 schedule, which shut down Guam’s public schools for a time. Additionally, garbage collection became a problem. 

“[We were] hauling garbage with whatever we could put it in,” he told the paper. 

At a panel discussion of Operation New Life as a part of the Guam Museum’s HITA Talk Series, Swavely said that Guam was notified last minute of the arrival of the refugees and had to improvise how to move thousands of them from the airports to the camps.

See Panel reflects on 50 years since Operation New Life. 

DPW in 1975 had a few hundred employees to support the thousands of Vietnamese refugees during the operation. Swavely emphasized that those employees were the backbone of DPW’s ability to manage the camp’s solid waste and transportation. He said because of the employees, no incidents were recorded on the DPW side during the entirety of the operation. 

Mary Lou Iriate Lujan was a social worker for the Guam Department of Public Health and Social Services during 1975 and like Swavely, she and her team were notified last minute that they were to support refugees at all of the camps in Guam. 

She said there were not many social workers on the island at the time, but those who did assist in Operation New Life were from DPHSS, Catholic Social Service, the U.S. military, and the Guam Memorial Hospital. 

Lujan said she primarily helped with the children at the camps from elementary ages to 12 and 13-year-olds. 

One of the biggest challenges she recalled was the language barrier. The social workers did not receive cultural or language training or have interpreter so they had to communicate with the children through hand signals. 

Lujan and her team wanted to give the children a sense of normalcy. “We tried to make them happy,” she said. They were responsible for taking the children out of the camps and around the island to enjoy themselves. At the time, Guam did not have much in terms of entertainment, but Lujan recalled that getting the children out of the camps helped, even if it was just for a short time. 

During the evacuation of Vietnam, some parents had to surrender their children since they could not flee the country on the same plane or ship. Children as young as two years old were in Guam’s refugee camps and as a result, some were adopted on Guam. Lujan could not tell whether the children she oversaw were unaccompanied or not.  

Dr. Hoa V. Nguyen is a family medicine physician and founding member of the American Medical Center. Nguyen and his family arrived in Guam in April 1975 and stayed at the camp in Asan for roughly two weeks before being transferred to Marine Corp Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, Calif. 

He recalled being pulled out of school by his family’s driver and not knowing where they would be going. 

“We just got into a car, [went] straight to the airport, and got onboard a C-130 and we ended up arriving in Andersen Air Force Base,” he said. 

Nguyen’s parents told him and his siblings that they were going on a short trip. He remembers watching a movie at Camp Asan which was stopped midway through to announce that Saigon had fallen. 

“As a child I looked around and the only thing I remembered is that all the older people and my mother … they started crying. But for us at that moment we said, ‘Hey, what happened?’ We didn’t realize that we would never be able to return to Vietnam anymore,” he said. “It’s a feeling that I can never forget.” Every time Nguyen passes Asan, he remembers what happened in April 1975. 

He eventually returned to Guam as part of his military service. Nguyen had the option to go to Hawaii, Korea, or Guam after his residency with the U.S. Air Force and thought it was interesting to return. His tour in Guam was only supposed to last three years, but he chose to remain and has lived on-island since 1995. 

Nguyen said the 50 years since Operation New Life have gone by fast and one of the things he reflected on was the people of Guam’s hospitality.  

“The people of Guam really gave a lot of us a new beginning,” he said. “Without them, our family — a lot of families in the U.S. — would not be able to be where we are right now.” mbj