50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, an Iowa immigrant's arrival: Nik and Doug's America: Episode 10

The Iowa Mercury and The Seven Times broadcast a special episode of “Nik and Doug’s America” today as we interviewed my sister, Jane Nguyen, who just marked the 50th anniversary of her arrival in the United States during the Fall of Saigon in 1975.

Brave troops and aid workers and flight crews evacuated Jane from Vietnam.

She arrived in Chicago, where her Iowa family, including me, her brother, were waiting. We then made the drive to Indianola, Iowa, and later moved to Carroll, Iowa.

Jane — who authors The Asian Iowan column on Substack — talks about the immigrant experience in Iowa on a range of levels.

Heftman authors the The Seven Times Produced By Nik Heftman column.

All three of us are members of The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative.

Please consider supporting The Iowa Mercury and our efforts to cover rural Iowa and other reaches of the state.

Thank you

Leland Searles

,

Susan Beckman

,

Gretchen Graff

, and many others for tuning into my live video with

Nik Heftman

and

Jane Nguyen

! Join me for my next live video in the app.

About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers' Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )