On April 24, 1975 the last flight out of Saigon, Vietnam carried over 400 people to the United States, six days before Saigon’s surrender to the North Vietnamese Army.

Kristen Mai Giang was a little girl, on that flight with family, and here in this story she shares all the emotions of fleeing her home from the perspective of someone eight years old; playing a game of space-explorers to protect herself and her sister’s eyes from tear gas; sneaking a stuffed animal into the family’s overstuffed suitcase for comfort.