Shadow Children of Saigon

Shadow children refer to the thousands of orphans of mixed-race who lived from hand to mouth in their perilous passage through the dark shadows of Saigon during the Vietnam war. Rejected by their culture as non-Vietnamese and often shunned by the Americans, they desperately strove to live. Young and defenseless, their only hope was to stay too the shadows as they went about a routine that was one hundred percent about shelter and food to sustain them one more day. Lahn, Di.U, and Mien fit exactly into the description of shadow children. The book unfolds their story through seemingly impossible odds, tales of grit, and unbelievable journeys. On a specific day in their young lives fate bestows on them a small miracle that can not easily be understood at first, but will lead them to the sympathy of an American helicopter medic. who reaches out in an effort to help them through; the difficulties of their daily journey. Scenes of rescue and details of the American soldier fighting the war emerge along the way. A harrowing ending that threatens to drown them in its menace and uncertainty looms. A stirring epilogue promises to complete the tale.

The author flew as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970. First-hand observations while in Saigon precipitated this story of the battle of three "children of the dirt" to survive the war in its closing year. The harshness of the war that surrounds them every day is in the book, but also the hope that they will thread the needle and live, burns constantly in their small hearts. An American Medic takes up their dilemma and joins their struggle to survive. Fulton himself survived Vietnam and almost fifty years of commercial helicopter and fixed-wing flying; logging with a helicopter and flying DC-9s for a major airline. Among other aerial missions up in the air that included LifeFlight medivac, Alaska bush flying, and as a Vietnam Cobra helicopter gunship pilot (over 300 combat missions). This novel is his second published work. His first book is a memoir, Up in the Air, a pilot's journey. Fulton and his wife raised five children in the midst of his many searches for the elusive perfect, well-paying, and long-term pilot job. The moves amounted to a double-digit number, but took them to homes far above the Arctic Circle and as far south as Eastern North Carolina. Today Fulton and his wife live in Southwest Florida close enough to the Everglades to cruise its coastal waters with their small sailboat. Sailing the 10,000 Islands looking for vistas only the tropics can produce. Fulton is an award-winning speaker and has written a screenplay for a major US studio.