Guam – Senator Judith P. Guthertz has urged members of the Guam community to attend and participate in the “Operation New Life Symposium Untold Stories (35 years later),” to be held Saturday at the Guam Legislature’s Public Hearing Room.
The event will serve to remind the Guam community of the major contribution it made so many years ago to serving the needs of more than 130,000 refugees who passed through Guam on their way to resettlement as the Vietnam War came to an end.
Co-sponsored by Senator Guthertz’s Committee on the Guam Military Buildup and Homeland Security and the University of Guam, the symposium is to be moderated by UOG’s Cathleen Moore-Linn and will include speakers and panelists who were directly involved in ONL, beginning with keynote speaker Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo, who was then First Lady of Guam.
The success of the refugee evacuation through Guam was due to cooperation between the U.S. military, the local business community and all branches of the Government of Guam.
Representatives of these groups will relate their experiences.
Others who volunteered at the camps and worked on behalf of the refugees will describe what it was like to feed, medically treat, clothe and even educate children on a budget of essentially zero with no advance notice.
The program will begin at 8:45 a.m. and conclude with general public discussion of Operation New Life at 2 p.m.
