His parents were of the merchant class, of Chinese/Viet ethnicity, and knew they'd be cleansed under the new regime.
They fled on an old barge-type vessel that began taking on water immediately. The vessel was very overcrowded. The people began throwing everything overboard.
An old guy died. They tossed him overboard.
There were some soldiers that still had their weapons - overboard the weapons went.
There was a high ranking guy with a moped. When they went to toss the moped he threatened them with a gun. They overpowered him and both moped and gun were tossed.
Finally there was nothing left to toss, and an old lady began kicking his pregnant mom in the stomach to make her miscarry, so they could throw the baby/placenta overboard.
Stories like that and the one above make me feel very blessed. It also reminds me of the desperate measures people will take to survive.
The baby survived, BTW, and he was born an American. So of the 4 boys they are named Giang, Doung, Duc, and...Martin. I think that there is funny as hell!