It took us 3 near death attempts to escape communist Vietnam. The first time, I was six years old. Of the three boats, one made it to resettlement, one completely sank, and ours started sinking, until luckily 5 hours later a fisherman’s boat came by and rescued us. My father had to throw my 6 month old brother from our boat to theirs, in the hopes that they would catch him! Thankfully, they did.
At that time, there was no freedom in Vietnam. The communists were always interrogating my parents, and trying to get full ownership . . .