Interviewed by Jacqulyn Harper

Conducted at the Fort Smith Multicultural Center on the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith Campus, April 16, 2002

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Jacqulyn Harper: This is Jacqulyn Harper, the date is April 16th, 2002. We're in the Multicultural Center of the University of Arkansas Fort Smith. Okay, could you tell me your name and spell it for me please?

Sharon Truong: My name is Sharon Truong, t-r-u-o-n-g.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay. Who were your parents?

Sharon Truong: My mother's name is Imogene, i-m-o-g-e-n-e, and do you want her maiden name, or the last, just the last name now?

Jacqulyn Harper: Her last name will be fine.

Sharon Truong: Okay, Daggs, uh, Daggs. d-a-g-g-s.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay.

Sharon Truong: And my father's name is Clifton, c-l-i-f-t-o-n, Daggs.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay, and when and where were you born?

Sharon Truong: I was born in Fort Smith in January 13th, 1959.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay. Do you know of anyone else we could interview?

Sharon Truong: Uh, there are a couple of people, they've told me that if they had time, if you could reach them and they had time, uh, I mentioned their name to Laura. I don't know if she's.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay.

Sharon Truong: . . .been able to contact them or not.

Jacqulyn Harper: All right. Do you have any photographs or documents that we could make copies of?

Sharon Truong: I have two pictures with me; I'm not sure if they will turn out, you know, because they're old and they're kind of faded.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay, we can take a look at those.

Sharon Truong: But, you can try. You can try. I had a pic, a bunch of pictures of the kids.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay.

Sharon Truong: And those have gone somewhere, I don't know where. It's been a while since I've seen them.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay, and you were a volunteer at Fort Chaffee, right?

Sharon Truong: Yes.

Jacqulyn Harper: And, what year?

Sharon Truong: That would have to be, I was thinking about that coming over here, and that would have to be probably about, I don't know, maybe '76, because I volunteered about two weeks before I started into the eleventh grade.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay.

Sharon Truong: The last two weeks before school started. One of my friends saw an article in the paper, they were needing volunteers and she came to me, otherwise, we would have done it sooner had we known.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right. So that was in December of '76?

Sharon Truong: It would have to be, it was in the summer, it would have to be about, uh, probably the last part of July or the first part of August maybe, um, it could have been the, I'm sorry-I'm fuzzy on the dates there-it could have been the, um, it seems like school started after Labor Day at the time and so it could have even been the last part of August. I remember we were in, in one of the old barracks buildings and it was hot. We would have to raise the windows and everything, you know, so it, it was, uh, in the summer.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay.

Sharon Truong: It was in the summerish time.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay, so you were there for two weeks?

Sharon Truong: Yes.

Jacqulyn Harper: In the summer of '76?

Sharon Truong: Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the, in, in about '76.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay, and who did you work with while you were there?

Sharon Truong: The, uh, lady that we went to and talked to at first, her name was Raimey Lewis.

Jacqulyn Harper: Raimey Lewis, okay.

Sharon Truong: They told us that she was, when we, I don't even remember, I'm, we might have went to the task force headquarters to begin with, and they told us that the lady was Vietnamese but she could speak Vietnamese and English, and when we got there she was not Vietnamese, and uh, you know we had a little difficulty understanding her.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: And, uh, but I think, later on, she even went on to do other things. I've seen her name several times in the paper since then.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay. Uh, did you primarily work with uh, children or adults, or, where was your work centered while you were volunteering?

Sharon Truong: (cough) Excuse me, we worked with, uh, four and five year olds.

Jacqulyn Harper: Uh huh.

Sharon Truong: Uh, there was another girl with me, her name is Debbie, she's the one that saw the, the article in the paper, and we just, uh, mostly played with them. I'm not sure what the purpose of the, uh, if it was like a day care where, you know, they just went while their parents did other things like learn English or work or whatever, or if it was uh, supposed to be like a school and we didn't know, because like I say we spent most the time primarily playing with the kids

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: Uh, maybe they learned a few things, but, uh, we played, uh, they had Play-Do and we got down in the floor and played with Play-Do, and uh, we just, you know, did little games and things as much as we could with them without being able to speak the language or anything.

Jacqulyn Harper: Were there any people, any of the children that you could communicate with?

Sharon Truong: I don't remember that, uh, any of them ever tried to speak English or anything.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay. Did you ever speak to their parents or any of the other adult people who were there?

Sharon Truong: The only time was one morning, and I'm not sure he was a parent, I don't, I don't remember that he was, but we got there a little bit early and we saw someone walking toward us and I started telling Debbie, "Oh no, here's a parent coming and we can't talk to him and what do we say, you know, and because we didn't know anything if they asked anything about the kids, or, you know, we were just kids ourselves, you might say. And, uh, I started saying, "Debbie, Debbie, there's somebody's parent!" And when he came over he said, "I used to be a teacher," and I, then I realized he could understand English and I was like, embarrassed that you know, oh! No! No!

Jacqulyn Harper: Oh, yeah. Okay.

Sharon Truong: But, uh, we didn't really have any contact with the older people. Just one day, they were playing music, and there were different uh things on there, like one of them was The Flight of the Bumblebee. We were supposed to act out, actually the kids were supposed to, to, act out the, the parts, you know, we were just supposed to show them how, and so The Flight of the Bumblebee, of course, we were supposed to put our hands out like wings and go Zz-Zz-Zz-Zz, and then there was an elephant and all kinds of things. And Debbie and I were the only ones doing it. The kids were just looking at us like, you know, they didn't know what was going on, and then Debbie said, "Look, look" and she pointed at the door, and there was a bunch of adults crowded around there and they were all peering in with their hands around their eyes looking in the door and we were really embarrassed.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: You know how teenagers are, and uh, that's the only contact we had at that time, actually, with the adults.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay. What other memories do you have of working with the children and playing with them?

Sharon Truong: I can remember one incident where Debbie and I decided the kids were thirsty and were gonna give them a drink at the water fountain and so we just had everybody, we just took everybody by the hand and lined them up and I would hold the kids up and she would turn the water on. And none of them, I can't remember any of them opening their mouth, and the water was just hitting them all in the face, and we would sit them down and the kids would start licking the water from around their face, and Debbie and I laughed about it, you know, what did these kids think? We're holding them up with their face down in the water, but uh, and then there was one time when we were playing with the Play-Do and one of the little boys came up, I was working with a little girl, and uh, one boy came up and started tugging on my clothes and pointing over in another direction, and I thought he wanted attention, and I would say, "Wait just a minute, when I finish here, I'll come and see to you, I'll take care of you, see what you want." When I finally turned around to see what he wanted, there was another little boy I guess that he had been pointing at that had wet his clothes.

Jacqulyn Harper: Oh!

Sharon Truong: So he was probably sayin' this little boy needs to go to the bathroom and I just didn't understand what he was sayin'.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: And, uh, there was one little girl in particular that I remember, and she was the one I was workin' with at the time, that, uh, she had little chunks of hair missing, and had little scabs on her head and her eyes were kind of matted, and I felt partial to her somehow, you know, I kind of wondered. I had never listened to the news to know too much about what went on or anything, you know, about it, but I always wondered, even now, what was wrong with her, you know, how she lost the little chunks of hair and different things, and uh, just, I can remember how I felt toward her, how, I, um, and there was a woman named Lin, and uh, she told Debbie that I, I was always big, and Debbie was pretty petite and everything, and this Lin, was uh, you know, she started noticing Debbie's shoes, and uh, she wanted to try them on, and I can remember she said she hoped her sponsor would buy her shoes like that when she was sponsored, and I just felt really bad to think about it. I thought, if my shoes had fit, and she had wanted my shoes I would have given them to her.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: And Debbie told me on the way home that she would have given her the shoes if she'd had another pair to, to wear home, and uh, I thought to myself, not that, you know, she was afraid that maybe her parents might be upset or something, you know, the reason she didn't do it, but I thought, I would have gone home barefooted. I just couldn't have done that.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right. That's great! Do you remember any events prior to your volunteering that were related to the conflict, or any events, uh, related to Fort Chaffee?

Sharon Truong: When we volunteered, the, the first, uh, at the first, the plan was, Debbie and I, we couldn't have had our drivers' license too long, and the plan was that I would drive my parents' car the first week and she would drive her parents' car the next week, and of course we drove the car the first day, we volunteered from like 8 to 12, 8 in the morning or so till about noon, and we had to park in the, I believe it was the Officers' Club parking lot, and we came out to go home the first day, and my parents' car wouldn't start, so we immediately went into the Officers' Club and, I think that was the closest phone, and we called her dad because my parents worked, and we called her dad to uh, come and see about the car. When we came back to the car, we hadn't been there too long till an MP came up and he asked if we were waiting on someone in the Officers' Club, and we said no, our car won't start, and we're waiting on her dad. So he left and in a little while, another one came by and asked us the same thing, and we said no, we're waiting on her dad, he should be here in a little while. So we told him that we had car trouble, and he said, "Let me see what I can do, it maybe it's just the battery or something." So I raised the hood and he got under there, and we sat in the car, and we could hear bangin' and peckin' around, you know, and this and that, and it kept sayin', "Now try, now try", and it didn't start. So he said, "I don't know what's wrong, just wait here till her dad comes, that's all I know to tell you". And he left, and in a little while, another man came by and he asked the same thing. We said, you know, we're havin' car trouble, and uh, we didn't want to go leave the car, and, anyway, it happened, I told Debbie, I said, I don't know what to do because I don't want to sit here, and everybody that comes by ask us the same question, so maybe if we just get out and raise the hood, they'll know we're havin' car trouble, they'll leave us alone.

Jacqulyn Harper: Uh huh.

Sharon Truong: Well that was the wrong thing to do, because then they started comin' and sayin', "Let me see what I can do".

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: "Are you having car trouble? Let me see what I can do". Several of them said, "I used to be a mechanic", or "I am a mechanic", or whatever. At one time, we had several men standing around under the hood, and we were in the car, and we could here them pecking and banging around outside.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: You know, and they'd say, "Now try, now try", and it didn't start. So we finally decided, I was afraid, you know, if my parents ever found out, Debbie's dad came and, you know, saw all these men standin' around, and then he would tell my, my dad and our parents would be upset, you know, "What were you out there — It wasn't very lady like, all these men around here!" you know. So I told Debbie, we weren't very far from the gate, we might as well just walk up there and wait for her dad to come and that way we could tell him where we were at exactly too. A man came by, even on a motorcycle, and we wouldn't take that, 'cause like I say, we were scared of what our parents would say for sure, and we went up to the gate, we waited on her dad and her dad came and just started the car right up, he put the jumper cables on it and started it right up, and we, you know, drove on home, and my dad took the car to a mechanic and he came home and he said, "You know there's a . . ." I don't remember, like the starter solenoid or something, said, "There's a little thing in there, the starter solenoid," or whatever it was, and he said, "The mechanic said it looked like somebody had just beat the daylights out of it."

Jacqulyn Harper: Oh no!

Sharon Truong: And I didn't ever tell my dad, you know we were sitting there and all these guys were beatin' on that, 'cause, I, I, like I say, we were afraid what he would have to say about it.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: But, uh, before that, I can remember when they brought the refugees in and I was curious as to what they look like or how they would be dressed or anything, 'cause uh, there would be articles in the paper from time to time, and that was big news at the time. And I know that one time they had a picture in there, and they talked about the men sewing, and I thought that was so strange because I didn't know any man that sewed around here.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: And so I could just imagine all of these men at the sewing machine, and, you know, just I couldn't imagine what kind of people they would be.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: And I would make little trips by there, just outside Chaffee, you know down Highway 22 and try to see and of course they were back, I guess, from the gate. I never saw anybody, and I was always a little disappointed, and of course I had to do that without my parents knowin' because like I say, I hadn't had my driver's license very long, and they were always worried I might have an accident or something, so they didn't want me going very far, and uh, just, uh, one time, uh, a couple of times that our church volunteered to sing out there, and the first time that we went, everything went pretty good. We didn't have any problems, and uh, that's when I met the young man that's in the picture that I have, the couple of pictures that I have. The next time that we went, the translators, there was a mix up somehow, and the translator didn't show up. The people who came were expecting a movie, we found out later.

Jacqulyn Harper: Oh.

Sharon Truong: And so we all go in, and we set up the music and everything, and people came in and filled all the seats and everything, and one of the women stood up in front of everybody when it was time to start, and the translator still hadn't shown up, and she said "Chow", which later we found out meant hello, but at that time nobody knew what it meant. And everybody just, we thought they were gonna riot, you know, they started, "Chow!" [clap] or what, uh, [clap] [stomp] chow [clap] [stomp] chow [clap] [stomp] and then it just got faster and faster you know, clappin' and stompin' until they were just goin' [clapping] chow chow chow chow chow.

Jacqulyn Harper: Wow.

Sharon Truong: And we didn't know what to do, you know, here's this group of people, and, you know, and uh, I had asked Susan, her name was Susan, I said, "What does that mean when she said that?" and she said, "I don't know, I just heard somebody outside say it", and I thought, [gasp], you know, and then they, we have this reaction, and then there was a young man who came up out of the crowd and came up on stage and he quieted everybody down, and then every time they would start to get a little restless he would just step up to the mic and start speaking and calm everybody down, and he spoke English a little, and uh, we kinda, I kept in touch with him, and uh, I know one time that his birthday came around and I went out with my brother and sister-in-law because I was afraid to go by myself because I didn't know what my parents would say. I was always worried about what my parents were gonna say about anything.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: And, uh, I made a German chocolate cake, and I bought him a little transistor radio and took. I did, I had no idea what he liked or what the people were used to eatin' or anything you know, but we spent a little time on that day, and then at one time I would send him money in the mail, I would send him like a dime to make a phone call so he could call me and I would send envelopes with stamps and a piece of paper so he could write to me, and at one time I came home and my brother said that this young man had called and he said, "I think he's sick and they're gonna send him home", and I said, you know I was thinking, well how can they send him home? You know, and what kind of illness could he have that would be so bad that they would have to send him, you know. He said, he said something about penicillin, and I was thinkin' you know, we, I've had penicillin shots in the past, you know, so, strep throat, and everything, so why would all of a sudden this be a problem? And I said, "Well, how do you know?" and he said, "Because I asked him, 'Do you need penicillin?' and he said, 'Yes, yes, yes' ". And I still don't know what, what the thing was with that. I never did find out what was going on, you know, how my brother misunderstood.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: But, I found out then, that uh, his name was Hiep and he was being sponsored out to, um, Michigan, and he didn't really want to go, I don't know if it was because of me, because I was the only person he really knew here, or because, just the, you know the idea of being moved off somewhere else or what, what was, and uh, maybe they told him it was cold because he complained about the cold after he moved up there, but he would call me sometimes and he would talk about wanting to come back, and I tried to sponsor him myself, and you know, that didn't go over very well because I was a teenager and lived at home and didn't have a job or anything, and uh, I finally went to the church, the youth leader, Debbie's parents were the youth leaders at the church, and I began to talk to them and tell them, you know, that he wanted to come back, and we began to write letters back and forth to the people who had sponsored him, and uh, he managed to come back, and in the meantime, my dad, and I'm sorry to say that he was against the idea, and we haven't ever discussed it, I don't know if it was just the position he was in as pastor of the church.

Jacqulyn Harper: Your father was the pastor?

Sharon Truong: Yes. Uh, Central, it was called Central Assembly of God.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay. In Fort Smith?

Sharon Truong: Yes. It's on, uh, 4th and C street, I don't remember the address right now, but.

Jacqulyn Harper: Is he still there?

Sharon Truong: No, he's retired from pastoring, uh he retired a while back, but there was an older couple, the woman in particular, if even a black person stepped in the door she would leave, and I don't know if she was the only one that felt that way, I mean I didn't ever see anybody else leave or anything, but my dad would, he, he worries a lot about things. He worried about uh, you know, the church and everything, it was a lot of older people, and he would come and wake me up at night, because he was worried about things, you now, and he would say things like, uh, "I'm afraid that if this boy comes to stay," you know, "that maybe the church is gonna split. That people won't like it and some of them will leave, and uh, it really had me upset, but I pursued it. I thought that was the best thing to do, you know, but I look back and I don't know if it was or it wasn't, you know, to, um, be defiant or rebellious or whatever you want to call it, but all I knew at the time was just, he wanted to come back and I felt really bad that he was somewhere he didn't want to be, and he came back, and he went to the church, and the church did not split up, everybody continued to go, just like they always had, whatever comments that they made, I never heard, and uh, anyway, he still lives in Fort Smith right now, he's been working at Dixie Cup for a long time, just, uh, shortly after he came back he went to work there, and uh, he bought a house and uh, just started building on to his house, he's got a really nice house and everything now, so he's done well.

Jacqulyn Harper: And what is his name?

Sharon Truong: His name is Hiep. He's one of them that I, I told Laura about and he didn't want to talk for whatever reason, I don't know, so it's spelled h-i-e-p.

Jacqulyn Harper: Other than your father's, uh, well, I'm at a loss for words . . .um. . .

Sharon Truong: Prejudice?

Jacqulyn Harper: Prejudice, well. . .

Sharon Truong: Well, I'm not sure if it was, like I say if it was his personal opinion or if he was actually worried about what other people would think

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: Uh, there for a little while, I think he was afraid that Hiep and I would marry. He would tell me that we might have problems if we had children because you know maybe the Vietnamese wouldn't accept them, maybe the other group wouldn't accept them.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: The Caucasians or whatever. You know there was a lot of uh, resentment at the time.

Jacqulyn Harper: Mmhmm.

Sharon Truong: Mixed feelings about them coming I guess and the conflict and everything, I don't know, so I'm not real sure if it was a personal opinion or like I say, we've never discussed it, it was just so, um, hurtful to me, you know, that we just never talked about it anymore.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right. Other than his reservations, did you experience any other adversity from your friends or other family or other church members?

Sharon Truong: We just had this one lady that uh, he stayed, this young man stayed with, she agreed to let him stay there, she was an older person, and she came one time and complained to my dad 'cause I took the boy and started um, I took him to the bank and started uh, uh, a checking account, and uh, when he went to work he could put his money in the bank, and uh, he started working in a place called Condrin Manufacturing, I think, and he didn't make very much, seems like, I dunno, 75 or 85 dollars a week, something like that, it wasn't a whole lot, and I didn't want him to just have money laying around, or anything, and I wanted him to put money in the bank, and I would always say, one day you'll have a car, one day you're gonna get married, or whatever and you need to save your money up. And uh, she came one day and complained to my dad that, uh, I was putting the money in the bank and she wasn't getting her share of it, and, uh, she had told us, it was my understanding when he first came that he was supposed to be able to stay with her for free because she was an older woman and she lived by herself and she wanted the company a little bit, you know, and then we found out later, well, I told him that it was only fair that he give her some, because she did take him places some, and cook for him, and uh, it was only fair that he give her a little bit. But I found out later that not only was he giving her a little money, but the people, the, Debbie's parents, also gave her money.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: So um, I don't. . .

Jacqulyn Harper: What was Debbie's last name?

Sharon Truong: Boen. b-o-e-n.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay.

Sharon Truong: And, that's uh, then her, this lady that he lived with, her, uh, I think it was her son, maybe her daughter-in-law, I mean, I'm sorry, maybe her daughter and son-in-law that wanted to sell him a motorcycle, a little scooter type thing, and I was against it, because I was afraid he was inexperienced and, um, maybe he wouldn't know the laws, and, you know, maybe not be too careful. I had no idea of the country, or, that he had come from, and what it would be like there, and the transportation they used, or anything, and, um, I didn't know how it would be for him to have a scooter that he could drive to get around. I knew he needed transportation, but I wasn't quite sure that was the best thing, at the time anyway. So he bought this scooter, and I can remember that he drove it a couple of times, and I, I saw him run a couple of stop signs, and I saw him make a U-turn right in front of a police station one day on the motor scooter, and so I tried to get him to sell the motor scooter and, well, there, not just that, there was different things that had to be fixed, it needed, uh, I don't know what the bars on them are called on the front, the horn didn't work, and there was all kinds of things that he was gonna have to do to it to um, get it so that it was even rideable on the streets, and uh, anyway, they called me one morning before I went to school and told me that, uh, an adult should be taking care of him, that I had no right to tell him what to do, he was a young man, and even if we were married that I was just a girl, and he should be the head, if, if we were married that he should be the head of the house, and uh, in other words he should be telling me what to do and I shouldn't be telling him anything, and just, you know, that I, I wasn't experienced enough or old enough to know anything about life and first one thing and another.

Jacqulyn Harper: Who called you?

Sharon Truong: This, the, the lady that he was living with. . .

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay.

Sharon Truong: It was her daughter, and uh, I was really upset, you know, about that, because I thought, I was the one that was trying to get him to start the checking account and trying to get him to put his money back and take care of things and I thought that for no older than I was, I was being fairly mature, I'm sure that I, you know, didn't, I, I know that I didn't know everything, but, uh, I thought at the time I was doing the best I knew how to do, and the, you know, the best that, you know, nobody else seemed to be taking an interest in, in that as far as that went, except you know, Debbie's parents, and uh, he probably listened to me as well as he did them about things like that. I know that when, actually when we first started trying to get him to put money in the bank he was a little reluctant to do it, and then after he put it in there and he realized that he could still have access to it, you know, it was a lot better, but those are the only real things that I encountered as far as that, um, I'm married to a Vietnamese man right now, and I know that people, he still comes across people every once in a while that thinks he doesn't pay taxes.

Jacqulyn Harper: Mmhmm.

Sharon Truong: Just, you know, goofy things like that, but, you know, we've not had any real real problems that I can say.

Jacqulyn Harper: Did you ever work with any people who were at Chaffee while you volunteered there? Any Vietnamese people?

Sharon Truong: No, we never, uh, uh, just uh, the, Lin, she could speak English and she came in, she was there, she came in and talked to the kids sometimes when there was something they needed to do, but uh, mostly we just played with the kids.

Jacqulyn Harper: Since then have you met any people who were refugees there or other volunteers or service men and women who were at Chaffee?

Sharon Truong: My husband, um, had a friend that he hadn't been in contact with for a long time when we married, and we were talkin' about his family because he left his family in Vietnam in '75 when he came here and he didn't know where his family was at, if they were dead or alive, and we would, at night, when we were alone, we would speculate on what could have happened to them and how we might go about finding them and I, I would always ask if he had any friends who had family that, maybe came from the same area or something, and he told me about a man in Kentucky, and he said, "I haven't been in contact with him for a long time", and he said, "I don't know if he's even still there", so I called information and they happened to have a phone, and we got their phone number, and the man's wife and her sister had come out of Fort Chaffee, and uh. . .

Jacqulyn Harper: Do you remember his name?

Sharon Truong: His name is Vinh, v-i-n-h, and I want to say his last name is Pham, p-h-a-m, and I don't remember his wife's name, I don't remember if my husband's even, I don't even know if he knows her name for sure or not.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay. And what's your husband's name?

Sharon Truong: His name is Quang, q-u-a-n-g. He didn't uh, come out of Fort Chaffee, my husband didn't come out of Fort Chaffee, he went through Indian Town cap, uh, Gap, Pennsylvania.

Jacqulyn Harper: How did he come to Fort Smith?

Sharon Truong: He was sponsored out to Montana, and uh, he had a friend up there, the way I understand it, that decided to come down here. It was so cold up there that they didn't like it, and uh, the reason that they went, he's told me several times, the reason that they went to Montana is because most everybody wanted to go to Florida or California or places that was warmer, and he thought that they would get sponsored out easier if they went somewhere nobody else wanted to go, and he said you know, they talked about it and they decided if American people could live there they could too, so he stayed there for a while, and then his friend came down here, and started to work and decided to stay here and started writing to him, and telling him that he could come and stay with him if he wanted to until he got on his own and he just ended up down here in this area.

Jacqulyn Harper: That's great! How has, uh, well-sentence structure-excuse me. [laughter] How has your volunteering experience helped you, or has it helped you at all?

Sharon Truong: I think that uh, I dunno, when I look at things, the uh, I didn't really know anything about Viet Nam, I, I, that was a word that you know, people talked about, and a lot of things were goin' on and I didn't ever watch the news or anything like I say I was just really curious about it but I can remember even one time when I was a kid that um, there would be military people from Fort Chaffee that would be in Fort Smith, around, you know, my aunt used to go to a laundromat, and uh, Queens Palace Laundromat, and there would be people in there, you know, pressin' their, the men in there pressin' their uniforms and things, and I sat down beside one one time and I'm embarrassed to think about it now, how bold I was, or whatever in talkin' to somebody I didn't even know or anything, but I sat down beside him, and I had a Coke, and I asked him first off, I said, "Do you want to Coke?", and he said, "No, thank you", and I said, "I have a dime, I can buy you a Coke", and he said, "No, that's okay, thank you". And I said, "My brother says in Viet Nam they eat grasshoppers", and he said, he kind of laughed, and he said, "I'm sure they eat a lot of things", so I can remember being a little curious, even at that time as to what kind of people they would be or what was goin' on, but I just never really paid a whole lot of attention to it, so by volunteering, and, as I say again, I would pass by there and want to see what they look like, what the people would look like, and uh, if they would be dressed any different, or just whatever I could find out, so by volunteering, I think I, I at least got a chance to see that the people were just, basically, normal people, I mean, they were different from us in, in ways maybe, but I didn't even see them dressed any different, really, they usually had on pants and, and shirts and everything, the ones I saw, and I, I can remember even being a little disappointed at that because I thought maybe they would be dressed in something exotic, or, or, I don't know what I expected, but it was a little relief of my curiosity, you know.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: When I think at, like I say, how things came about, and now I'm married to a Vietnamese man, you know, it just, uh, I dunno, it's, it's just hard to really say, uh, I dunno what to say about how I feel or how I think that it worked in. I'm glad I did it, I enjoyed it, and now I look back, all of those kids, they were about four and five years old at the time, and they have to be grown, and have I'm sure have children of their own and I would like to know what happened to them, if any of them are still in the area, if so, what they look like now, how many kids they might have, or, you know, what, uh, if they went to school or college, or what kinds of jobs they hold, anything, you know.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right. Do you have children?

Sharon Truong: No, I don't have any of my own. I, I've raised three stepchildren.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay.

Sharon Truong: And, my son had, I'm sorry, my husband had a son that he left in Viet Nam, and he, like I say, he didn't know from '75 until '91 if his family was alive or not, and in '91 we found his family and we started tryin' to sponsor his son, and then his son. See, I was married to my husband for five years before I even knew that he had a son that I didn't know anything about, and we started tryin' to sponsor him, and in the process the boy wanted to get married, and he got married, and in the process a little girl came along, and so we just had a whole family when they finally got to come, and they came in '98, been here since '98.

Jacqulyn Harper: That's great. Uh, I don't have many more questions here. Do you have any involvement with the Vietnamese community here in Fort Smith now?

Sharon Truong: No, not really, uh, once in a while we attend the Vietnamese Baptist church on Jenny Lind. We haven't been there for a while. We did go for the New Year's celebration that they had. We used to go when they had the New Year's Celebration in the UTC or the UCT club, or something, uh, on Towson Avenue there's a Burger King, and then right across from that about a block down there used to be a, some kind of club there and they used to have celebrations for New Year's every year, and we used to go to that, and then they stopped havin' that and we just haven't done that anymore.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay.

Sharon Truong: But, uh, I would like to, I mean, we have friends, of course.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: Vietnamese friends, I used to think I'd hear some of them say they had brought their parents over, and their parents were not too happy here because of the way we live. We stay inside a lot, you know, it's hot in the summer time, so we stay inside and turn the air conditioner on, it's cold in the winter time we close the doors and turn the heat on, and they're used to pretty much coming and going as they please, everybody's doors open and they visit back and forth, and they come here, and they don't speak the language, and everybody's so closed and so private that it's sometimes hard for them, and I used to think that I would like to maybe have a time at the, um, one of the senior citizens centers or even at my house that the older people could come and play whatever games they play, I don't know if they play dominoes or anything like that. I know there's a game they play that is little round, kind of like checkers, maybe, and it has uh, Chinese characters on it. I have no idea how the game is played or anything, but uh, I thought that, you know, it would be nice if they could just get together sometime and socialize, and relive old times maybe.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right. That's, that's interesting. Do you have any interest with working with, like, high school students or kids in school? I know when I was in high school, we had several different groups and clubs that worked together and we had a lot of Vietnamese students, Laotian students, Asian students who all participated in the Cultural Ambassadors, which is a group that goes out to elementary schools and presents ethnic dress, and foods, literature, different aspects of a different culture to elementary school kids, uh, that's another way that I think school kids are getting involved in a similar way that you did with the kids in Fort Chaffee.

Sharon Truong: We have an exchange student staying with us right now from Viet Nam.

Jacqulyn Harper: Great!

Sharon Truong: And he does that, and he goes to Southside and he does that. Sometimes he brings the slips home for me to sign.

Jacqulyn Harper: That's great!

Sharon Truong: So that he can go from school to school. He kind of enjoys that.

Jacqulyn Harper: Yeah.

Sharon Truong: I think he's not quite sure what to expect from the kids sometimes because he comes home and tells me, they went one day and dissected a fish for some of the kids, and he'd come home and tell me funny things that the kids would say.

Jacqulyn Harper: And what is his name?

Sharon Truong: His name is Anh, a-n-h.

Jacqulyn Harper: Uh huh.

Sharon Truong: [cough] His last name is spelled n-g-o.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay.

Sharon Truong: He came here [cough] excuse me, he came here in September, and he'll be leaving the first of June.

Jacqulyn Harper: Is there anything that we haven't covered that you'd like to add?

Sharon Truong: I can't think of anything.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay, well, thank you, uh.

Sharon Truong: You're welcome. I don't know if anything I've said will be of interest to anybody, but you know, I didn't have maybe as much experience at Fort Chaffee as a lot of people did. I would liked to have had more, but I just didn't know how at the time.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: Debbie happened to see the article in the paper, and that's how we happened to do that for the two weeks. And um, the, you know, any of the other things or anything I could have done, or anything I would have, because I, if I had known how, because I was pretty curious about everybody, like I say.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: Wanting to know how they looked or how they acted and, even now I read a lot of articles about Vietnam, and especially you know, after I married my husband, I've read more than, I've read different things about the war and he watches a lot of the documentaries on TV so sometimes I'll sit and watch with him, and I probably know more now, and I'm by no means an expert, but more now than I did in high school. Well, I'm sure I do because in high school that was things that went on, but that was somewhere else, that didn't affect me, and so I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: I had a brother that was in the Navy at the time, and I can remember one time he made the comment that they went to Viet Nam and delivered playground equipment, and I, all those years, I thought, playground equipment, in the middle of a war, whatever that entails, he's delivering playground equipment, and it was only after I thought about it that I thought it was probably he was just being uh, what would you say, sarcastic, and he was probably delivering military equipment, 'cause I later heard uh, somebody that I knew that was in the Army talk about Uncle Sam's Boy Scouts, so then I began to think, well, he was probably delivering equipment of some sort, you know.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: Not playground equipment like swings and slides, and, you know, I couldn't imagine that, even though, you know, I didn't know what the country was like or anything, you know, playground equipment is playground equipment.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: Slides and swings and all the good stuff, but, [cough].

Jacqulyn Harper: I know a lot of people have been making connections, drawing parallels between the current situation in, um, the Middle East, and the Viet Nam conflict in the '60s and '70s uh, if, say, an area like Chaffee was used again to take in refugees or if the need came up that, you know, people needed somewhere to stay in a safe place would you be willing to volunteer again?

Sharon Truong: In a heartbeat.

Jacqulyn Harper: That's great.

Sharon Truong: I've had people, when I was in high school and before I got married, I pen pals in several countries, and we would exchange even souvenirs, uh, I have a little, I have a cedar chest, and I have a little collection of things, uh, my Jordanian pen pal sent a couple of dresses, and he sent some little uh, I'm not sure they're actual, actually silver, but some little silver, um, I guess it would be like candy dishes or something you put maybe mints or nuts or something in, different things like that, and I read all the things that go on in the world, uh, there, for, well, still, Sudan, I read about things going on in Sudan, how, you know, their, they take slaves and I just, I feel really bad, you know and I, I just, so much, and I keep thinkin' you know, one person, and I know they have the story about the little boy who was throwing the sand dollars back in the ocean.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: You know, somebody said, "You can't help them all", and he picked another one up and he threw it and he said, "But I helped that one!" So I, you know, I would be willing in a heartbeat.

Jacqulyn Harper: It makes a difference to this one.

Sharon Truong: Yeah. And it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter to me what country, I mean I don't want to, obviously don't want to help somebody that's gonna destroy my country, so I would want them to be very careful about screening the people that they allow to come or whatever, and I'm not even sure how they would do that or you know, how can you be sure that even your own people are gonna do it, you know.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: But, uh, there's just so much, you know, just so many people that need help, and I saw this morning where they were talking about a food shortage in Africa, and I just, I have a hard time understanding that because we have so many. My husband's after me all the time for throwin' food out, and I mean, I don't need it, you know, we cook it, and if we cook too much and nobody eats it, you know, it goes out, it goes in the trash, and uh, he's after me all the time, don't cook so much, and uh, and I think about people like that, I can't imagine livin' here in a world of plenty how it would be possible for somebody not to have enough food to eat, and I think football players or athletes, and they get all these millions and millions of dollars, and how many people they could feed. And I think about even the musicians. I used to get after my kids for buyin' video, I mean compact discs or cassettes, you know, you're the one that's making this person rich.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: And this person has more money than even his great great grandchildren are gonna spend unless they just absolutely blow it.

Jacqulyn Harper: Okay, one more question for you. After your experience with Vietnamese refugees at uh, Fort Chaffee, and growing up here in Fort Smith, how do you think the Viet Nam conflict and having refugees here at Fort Chaffee has affected your life here and the culture of Fort Smith itself?

Sharon Truong: I think that any time you have people who can bring, uh, well, I, I don't know how to say it exactly, but, uh, I feel like they've added to the community. I just saw the pictures a while ago of the paintings. I know a lot of them were talented, and I know that the ones that I know were hard-working people, uh, I hear that it's different with some of them that they bring over now, that, you know, I don't know if that's so or not, you know, but uh, the ones that came when they brought them, you know, pretty much, hard working people, and I feel like that they added to the community, and I, I, my dad made the comment one time that uh, he felt like America was blessed because they took in people who had no place to go, and I feel like that also, you know, any time that you open up and share, you know, even your home with somebody, I feel like that, that, somewhere along the way you get something back in return, and I, being that I grew up I guess in that error, you know, that era, I don't know what it would be like, you know, not to uh, so, I, I, but I just feel like that they were, I like the Vietnamese people. My husband and I went to Vietnam a couple of times and visited his family, and uh, they were all really, we went in '91, even before the countries had diplomatic relations, and I was not mistreated or, I felt rather uncomfortable because I didn't know how we would be treated, but I was never mistreated or anything, and that's not to say that I agree with their type of government, or anything like that, I um, I don't know how it would be to actually live there or anything, you know, permanently, or what I would be, you know, I know that there are human rights violations and different things in different countries, you know, but, and that's not really what you even asked, but.

Jacqulyn Harper: That's okay.

Sharon Truong: Still, uh, like I say, we have friends, and I think pretty highly of the ones that I know, the ones that I've been around, and uh, you know, the ones that I know, I trust.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: So, you know, I can't imagine life any different for myself.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: You know, like I say, as far back as I can remember that I had the, the curiosity to know what they were like and then as I got older and began to write to people in different countries and want to know a little bit about their life and different things, so I think, uh, the idea of having different people around, you know, I enjoy Mexican food, and, or Hispanic food, it might not be what you would get in the real country, in the actual countries because I don't know, but Chinese food or whatever that we have here, and I can't imagine what it would be like not to have those things.

Jacqulyn Harper: Right.

Sharon Truong: And uh, the music we have, we listen to Vietnamese music in the home, and uh, my husband gets these uh, Paris by Night videos that he borrows from his friends, and they have like, little skits and the have uh, music and things on it, and I enjoy watching, I don't understand a lot of it, but that's my fault because I just never took the time to learn, but I like, I like it. I like to listen to the music and I like to listen to, you know, I like to watch the videos and like I say, I've read books and things about uh, the country and, uh.

Jacqulyn Harper: Well, that's great. Thank you again for your time and your information, uh one last thing we have this Deed of Gift form that basically says you will allow us to use this interview and the transcript of it in our archive here at the library, and um, that should just about finish everything up. Thank you so much.

Sharon Truong: You're welcome.