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Vietnamese boat people are rescued by the USS Ranger CV 61 March 20, 1981, on the South China Sea. All 138 people aboard were rescued
March 20, 1981, was a hot day with no wind to power the boat. Its engine had died seven days earlier, leaving those on board to starve to death in the middle of the ocean
Among them were brothers, future Army Maj. Lan Dalat and Army military police officer Anthony Lang, then 13 and 6.
"I remember approaching the ship and it was like a city, from my perspective," Lang said. "This thing was the biggest thing I had ever seen in my life. It was like a starship."
The USS Ranger, CV-61, at over 1,046 feet long, was equipped to carry more than 70 aircraft and about 5,600 Sailors. The ship’s captain was Navy Capt. Dan A. Pedersen, who had been the senior officer in a group of nine men who developed a tactics program for the F-4 Navy Fighter Weapons School at Naval Air Station Miramar, nicknamed “Top Gun.” In fact, the movie, “Top Gun” and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” were both filmed aboard the USS Ranger.
The Ranger took the Vietnamese refugees to the processing center in Manila, Philippines. They were named 138 Subic Bay, after the number of Vietnamese and the location where they first arrived.
British volunteer Muriel Knox, English teacher, poses with the rescued family — Anthony, Michelle, Cam Quy Ton, Christine and Lan — at the Vietnamese Refugee Camp at Palawan, Philippines, in 1981 before the family’s immigration to the United States.