Speech #940080336

Mr. President. on Wednesday of this week I was fortunate enough to visit the Vietnamese Refugee Center at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. I took it upon myself to make this trip after reading the press reports of the Subcommittee on Refugees. which indicated some rather disturbing facts. The impressions that I received from my visit to Eglin Wednesday compel me to share some of my thoughts with my colleagues and with the people of the country. Mr. President. the Refugee Center at Eglin Air Force Base is currently the home of about 5.000 refugees flown to the United States during the evacuation of South Vietnam. The camp is supervised by U.S. military and State Department officials who have been charged with the movement and initial care of these people. Judging from this one visit. I feel that the United States can be proud of the job these officials have done in receiving the refugees and in providing food. shelter. and needed health care. The people of the State of Florida should also be commended for their compassionate acceptance of the refugees. Floridians are doing an excellent job of beginning to teach the refugees our language and generally helping them to feel more comfortable in a strange new land. On my trip I was able to visit the tents and speak with many of the refugees personally. They have been divided into councils and have elected their own leaders to assist the American officials in overseeing the operation. The refugees in the camp are predominately skilled and semiskilled professional workers. living in family units. One of the refugee council leaders with whom I spoke. a colonel in the Vietnamese army. told me there had been no trouble whatsoever with any of the refugees and that they are all looking forward to placement in this country. I so spoke with the American officials. who told me that during the entire month. in which they had had a continuous flow of refugees. with a constant population of about 5.000. they had not had a single incident of any trouble. The council leader told me that only 38 of all the refugees who have been through that camp desire to return to their native land. Those 38 are basically young airmen who flew out of South Vietnam with the planes that were evacuated at the last moment. and feel that they were low enough down on the ladder that they would not be bothered if they returned to their families in their native land. A United Nations official was expected. during the day. to confer with those 38 individuals. Mr. President. the refugees at Eglin Air Force Base appear to me to be ones who could be productive and useful members of our society. 695 refugees were located in one section of the camp which I visited. Out of this number. 10 were medical personnel--doctors. dentists. and medical technicians. 30 were administrative and supervisory personnel. There were 13 former policemen. 18 tailors. 23 merchants. 10 lawyers. 21 teachers. including 6 Ph.