In April 1975, Phuoc Huynh and his wife Minh Chanh were among the thousands of Vietnamese people who fled the country at the end of the Vietnam War. Huynh had worked for the US Embassy in Saigon and feared persecution for his association with the South Vietnamese government and the US. Huynh and Chanh escaped to the US, but were forced to leave their family members behind. The couple moved to Seattle and worked to bring their family to join them, using money from two restaurants they had opened. Chanh and Huynh gradually acquired visas for Chanh's siblings and their families to come to the US, but it took longer to get visas for Huynh's daughters and his mother. Huynh's daughter Thuy escaped to the US in 1981, leaving his mother Bong Tran and twin daughters Thao and Tuyen the last family members in Vietnam. In 1985, they were finally able to rejoin the rest of their family after a ten year separation.

This image, taken at Sea-Tac airport, shows four generations of the Huynh family waiting to welcome the last members of their family arriving from a refugee transit camp. Gal Tran, in wheelchair, is holding great-granddaughter Louisa Huynh and the other child is probably Louie Huynh. Louisa and Louie were Phuoc and Minh's children born in the US.

Caption information source: "War-splintered Viet family is reunited after a decade," by Ed Penhald and George Foster, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 27, 1985, page D1.