Spriester Sessions: Refugee thanks US veterans for ‘legacy that they left in Vietnam’

SAN ANTONIO – Trinh Warner usually starts her survival story by talking about her grandmother, a woman she never saw again after Warner was put on a helicopter and flown out of Vietnam.

Her grandmother ended up dying in a re-education camp, Warner said.

Warner remembers the fall of Saigon, South Vietnam, well. As a small child, her grandmother showed up at her school and told them, “It was time.”

The siblings all made their way to the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, through crushing crowds and armed Marines, they made it onto the chopper and out of the only country they had ever known.

Warner’s story is part of KSAT’s special, “50 Years After The Fall: From Saigon to San Antonio.”

>> Click here to view our interactive project.

In this Spriester Sessions episode, Warner talked about the evacuation, her thoughts on the war, and how it shaped her family.

She is also quick to thank Vietnam veterans every chance she gets.

“I just thank them from the bottom of my heart. I don’t think they realize the legacy that they left in Vietnam to this day,” Warner said.

Read next:

• KSAT honors local Vietnam veterans’ legacy with ’50 Years After The Fall: From Saigon to San Antonio’
• Edgewood District Veterans: A legacy of camaraderie and community support in San Antonio
• 10,000 women from the US served in Vietnam, few recognize their role
• ‘We wanted to fight’: Local Marines reflect on final days in Vietnam
• From Saigon to San Antonio: A journey from Vietnam refugee to U.S. Air Force veteran
• The future of healing from combat PTSD, with the help of artificial intelligence
• Vietnam War casts shadow over President Lyndon B. Johnson’s legacy
• Veterans’ stories told through war murals of Military City U.S.A.
• Vietnam veteran finds peace, now leads others back to battlefields for closure
• ‘We were called upon to serve’: The ongoing search for 1,573 missing American service members from Vietnam War