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A US soldier searches for his Vietnamese son
Thousands of children were fathered by American servicemen during the Vietnam war. Now in their 60s and 70s, some veterans are desperate to find the sons and daughters they have never known.A tall, thin American wearing a straw hat wanders through the narrow streets of Ho Chi Minh City, clutching a photo album. At his side is a Vietnamese interpreter and fixer, Hung Phan, who has helped dozens of former American soldiers locate their long-lost children over the last 20 years. His latest client, the American under the straw hat, is Jerry Quinn. He has come to Vietnam to find his son.
"I know we lived at number 40," says Quinn, looking down the street for the house he used to share with his Vietnamese girlfriend. But there is no number 40.
A small crowd gathers. An elderly man, emerging from his house, explains that when the Vietcong entered Saigon in 1975, they didn't stop at changing the name of the city to Ho Chi Minh City - they also changed all the street names, and even the numbers.
Jerry Quinn is one of two million American soldiers sent to support the South Vietnamese army in the war against the North. During that conflict, it's thought about 100,000 children were born from relationships between local women and American soldiers. Those soldiers are now getting old, and some are guilt-ridden, or just curious to find out what happened to their children."But some fathers just don't want to know," says Brian Hjort. Together with Hung Phan, he runs Fathers Founded, a not-for-profit organisation that puts fathers together with their "Amerasian" children. Hjort, a Dane, was just another European backpacker travelling through Vietnam in the 1980s when he came across the Amerasian children. "They were in the street, begging for food and for help," he recalls. "The Vietnamese treated them cruelly - they were the children of the enemy."
Some had photos and knew the names of their fathers. Since the US Government keeps meticulous records of soldiers and veterans, Hjort was soon able to link dozens of children with their fathers - but he was sometimes horrified by the response he received.
Jerry and his girlfriend, Brandy, before they were parted "They would yell at me: 'Why are you calling? What do you want? Why are you talking about Vietnam? I don't want to have anything to do with that bastard. He's not my son. She's not my daughter. Stop calling me!'"
But Jerry Quinn, a missionary who lives and works in Taiwan, is anxious to find his son. He says that when he was sent to work in the Far East, he thought it was God's way of telling him to make amends for the past. "I suppose I am here out of guilt," he says. "And to try and do my duty as a father."
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1954: Vietnam is split into North and South at Geneva conference1957: Beginning of Communist insurgency in the South1962: Number of US military advisors in South Vietnam rises to 12,0001963: Diem overthrown and killed in US-backed military coup1964: US Congress approves military action in region.1968: Tet Offensive - combined assault by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese army on US positions - begins1970: Talks between US and Vietnam begin in Paris1973: Ceasefire agreement in Paris, US troop pull-out completed by March1975: North Vietnamese troops invade South Vietnam and take control of the whole country In 1973, his Vietnamese girlfriend, Brandy, was pregnant and they were negotiating their way through the bureaucracy required to get married. But at the same time, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was negotiating a "peace with honour" with the North Vietnamese leaders. The final agreement demanded that US troops leave immediately and Jerry Quinn found himself on a plane home."I tried to keep in touch," he says. "I sent her a hundred bucks every month for a year. I never knew whether she got it." Brandy sent him three photos which, 40 years later, he shows to everyone he meets in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. There are three pictures. A portrait of Brandy, a tall, beautiful Vietnamese girl in her 20s; a picture of her with their baby boy; and a picture of her standing next to a woman in a white coat.
By his third day in the city, Jerry is getting desperate. He and Hung Phan ask for help from the owner of a noodle bar close to the house where Jerry and Brandy once lived together. The owner sits on a stool, turning the pages of the photo album, and when she gets to the picture of Brandy and the woman in the white coat, she stops. "She was the midwife around here," she says. "She now lives in America but they haven't forgotten us and they sometimes come back to visit. In fact her daughter popped in for a bowl of noodles yesterday." Jerry begs the owner to get in touch with the woman, and she obliges.
Kim arrives the next day. An elegant middle-aged woman, she is staying in a smart hotel in the centre of Ho Chi Minh City with her Californian doctor husband. She takes the album, points a perfectly manicured finger at the photo of Brandy and calls out in excitement: "I remember her! We were good friends and I helped deliver your baby."
Kim identifies Brandy's Vietnamese name on the back of one of the photos - Bui. But she can't help Jerry discover his son's first name. When the Vietcong entered the city, she explains, they threatened to kill all those who had had any association with the enemy. "My mother made a huge bonfire and burned everything that might associate us with America." All the carefully kept records of the births were destroyed.
Jerry and Kim Choking back tears, Jerry asks Kim if he can hold her hands "because these hands held my baby and this is as close as I may ever get to my son". And there the story might have ended - in a little noodle bar in Vietnam with the customers looking on in amazement, chopsticks suspended in mid-air at the sight of a middle-aged, weeping American holding hands with the woman they know as the midwife's daughter.
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More than 30 years after being stripped, bound and paraded through countless Vietnamese villages, Pete Peterson returned to the country as America's ambassador.
While there, he shook the hands of his captors - and began a mission to save the lives of young swimmers.
But Jerry posts the photos of Brandy and the baby to Facebook, and says he is looking for a 40-year-old called Bui, and 8,500 miles away, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a 40-year-old man called Gary Bui recognises the photos.Jerry flies to Albuquerque. In the taxi to Gary's house he is shaking with nerves and last-minute doubts. "Will he accept me?" he wonders. "It's been 40 years that he has been waiting for a father. Will he let me hold him? He told me on the phone that he has taught himself not to show emotion."
The taxi pulls up at the house and the family is already outside, waiting for Jerry. "If you looked more like me, you would be me!" he says as he stumbles out of the taxi and grabs his son. They hang on to each other for an age, slapping each other's backs and crying. Looking on are Jerry's two newly-discovered grandchildren.
Slowly, Gary's story emerges. Brandy, like so many mothers of the children of American GIs, abandoned her baby son and fled for her life as Vietcong troops hunted down the women and children of the enemy. The baby was entrusted to friends who took him out of Saigon to hide until the witch-hunt calmed down.
"We lived in the jungle, in clay huts," Gary says. "There was never enough to eat." He was bullied by the other kids, who called his mother a whore. When he was four, he was taken to an orphanage, and four years later he found himself on board a flight to New York as part of a programme launched by the US Government to airlift thousands of Amerasian children to America. Brought up by foster parents, Gary kept copies of the same photos that Brandy had sent Jerry.
Watch Sue Lloyd Roberts' Newsnight film in fullJerry is wracked by guilt. "I didn't know you were an orphan," he says. "I always thought you would have been with your mother. There is so much I need to learn about you."
Gary's wife and children watch this scene warily. What is there to say to this sudden father-in-law and grandfather, so desperate to know them and love them?
"I know it is late, but I want to be there for you," says Jerry. "I want to be in your life."
Sue Lloyd Roberts' report was broadcast on Newsnight, BBC Two at 22:30 BST on 28 April, and will be broadcast on Our World on BBC News Channel on 3 May at 21:30 - or catch up on BBC iPlayerFollow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook
Army dog given posthumous medal
Sasha is the 65th animal to be awarded the PDSA's Dickin Medal since 1943 A British Army dog killed alongside her handler in Afghanistan is to be honoured with what is called the highest military award for an animal. Sasha, a four-year-old yellow Labrador who was trained to hunt out explosives, is credited with saving the lives of scores of soldiers and civilians.
She will be awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal, which the charity says is the animal version of the Victoria Cross.
She died alongside L/Cpl Kenneth Rowe in a Taliban attack in 2008.
Sasha was deployed with handlers from the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, attached to the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment.
Alongside her handler, she was tasked with carrying out advance patrols to find safe routes for soldiers and sniffing out weapons and IEDs.
The PDSA said: "Sasha's determination to search and push forward - despite gruelling conditions and relentless Taliban attacks - was a morale boost to the soldiers who entrusted their lives to her weapon-finding capability.
"On one occasion recalled by regimental colleagues, Sasha was searching a building in Garmsir when she detected two mortars and a large quantity of weaponry, including explosives and mines.
"This find alone undoubtedly saved the lives of many soldiers and civilians."
In 2008 she was assigned to 24-year-old L/Cpl Rowe and the pair were considered the best in the Kandahar region.
https://igocrypto.com/fenfen
Lance Corporal Kenneth Rowe died alongside Sasha when the pair were ambushed during a routine patrol 
L/Cpl Rowe and Sasha working together in Afghanistan before their deaths They died together on 24 July 2008 when their routine patrol was ambushed by a rocket-propelled grenade attack.
Continue reading the main story White Vision, a pigeon, was the first animal to receive the award in December 1943 for contributing to the rescue of an RAF crew in World War Two.Princess, a pigeon, was honoured in May 1946 for "one of the finest performances in the war record of the Pigeon Service"Upstart, a police horse, was awarded the medal in 1947 for remaining on duty in Bethnal Green, London, despite a flying bomb showering her with glass Simon, a cat, was posthumously awarded the medal for his work catching rats on board HMS Amethyst in 1949, despite being wounded by shell blastApollo, a German Shepherd with the New York Police Department, was granted the honour on behalf of all search and rescue dogs who worked tirelessly in the aftermath of the September 11 attacksLucky ,a German Shepherd and RAF Police anti-terrorist tracker dog, received the award in 2007 for her exceptional talent in locating the enemy during the Malaya campaign L/Cpl Rowe, from West Moor near Newcastle, had been due to return home the day before he died but wanted to stay on to complete a planned operation because he was concerned about a lack of cover for comrades.
Sasha had 15 confirmed finds of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), mortars and hidden weaponry.
Col Neil Smith QHVS, director of the Army Veterinary and Remount Services, said: "This prestigious award recognises how her devotion and skills undoubtedly saved the lives of many troops in Afghanistan, and acknowledges the excellent work our military working dogs and their handlers do.
"Sadly, this award is posthumous as both Sasha and her handler, Lance Corporal Ken Rowe, were killed in enemy action in Afghanistan in 2008.
"Our thoughts remain with L/Cpl Rowe's family and this award will give us the opportunity to once more celebrate his and Sasha's immeasurable contributions to military operations."
Sasha is the 65th animal to be awarded the medal since it was launched in 1943.
A news report from 2008 when L/Cpl Rowe and Sasha were killed in Afghanistan
Other winners of the Dickin Medal - named after the charity's founder Maria Dickin - include 32 World War Two messenger pigeons, three horses and a cat.
PDSA director general Jan McLoughlin said: "The award is even more poignant as we approach the centenary of World War One and are reminded of the huge debt we owe the animals who serve in times of conflict.
"This medal, recognised worldwide as the animals' Victoria Cross, honours both Sasha's unwavering service and her ultimate sacrifice.
"Her story exemplifies the dedication of man's best friend and reminds us all of the amazing contribution they make to our lives."
View the original article here
VIDEO: Syria conflict: No side able to win
President Bashar al-Assad has announced his candidacy for presidential elections in June, confirming his intention to stay in office despite years of civil war.
With President Assad determined to remain in power, will the regime or the rebels ever be capable of gaining the upper hand?
BBC Diplomatic correspondent James Robbins explains.
Putin hugs German ex-chancellor
Mr Schroeder stands next to Mr Putin (centre), who has his back to the camera Germany's former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has hugged Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg, despite the imposition of more Western sanctions on Russia.Mr Schroeder has long had close ties to Mr Putin and runs a pipeline venture bringing Russian gas to Germany.
Their embrace was photographed as Mr Schroeder celebrated his 70th birthday.
He held his Russian party as Nato states accused Russia of helping pro-Putin militias in eastern Ukraine.
Russia's state monopoly Gazprom pumps gas to Germany via the Nordstream pipeline under the Baltic Sea, and Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller was reportedly among Mr Schroeder's guests at the Yusupov Palace in St Petersburg.
Three German officers are among seven military observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) currently held captive by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. The German government has demanded their release.
The OSCE sent in unarmed observers after the rebels seized Ukrainian official buildings.
CriticismGerman media commentators criticised Mr Schroeder on Tuesday for his closeness to Mr Putin.
The Russian leader speaks fluent German, having served as a KGB secret service officer in communist East Germany during the Cold War.
Mr Schroeder was chancellor from 1998 to 2005. He used to lead the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), who are now in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).
Roland Nelles of Spiegel Online said the former chancellor "apparently forgets that one must still act responsibly for one's country as a former government leader".
"It would help if the ex-chancellor could use his influence to bring some sense to his friend Putin. Perhaps he is doing that too, but unfortunately you don't get any sense of that whatsoever. Pity," he wrote.
In Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung another commentator, Thomas Holl, said "the pictures of a laughing Schroeder, being hugged and cuddled by his friend Vladimir in the former tsarist palace, while German army soldiers are held hostage by fanatical Putin admirers, look macabre".
A senior German government official quoted by Reuters news agency said Mr Schroeder "does not represent the German government" and he "left active politics some time ago".
VIDEO: The flying robotic pop band
A team of US robotics experts have put together a pop group of flying drones, who will play a string of live dates this weekend.
Daniel Mellinger, a former student of Pennsylvania University and co-founder of KMel Robotics, talked to the BBC about how the band was formed.
The robots will be performing at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC, in a bid to recreate before a live audience what they previously achieved in the recording studio.
Video Journalist: Dougal Shaw
Drone footage courtesy of KMel Robotics; Visual and musical direction by Kurtis Sensenig and Dan Paul respectively