Round 1980, close to the small village of Cần Giuộc in southern Vietnam, a single glass of water was centered on a desk. Dinh Du and Hongyen Dao leaned in shut, peering into it.
As a youthful man, Dinh entered commerce faculty and have become a mechanic. He labored as a contractor for the U.S. Military whereas conflict raged by means of Vietnam within the late Sixties. At some point, he repaired a bulldozer belonging to one in every of Hongyen’s family and was deemed “helpful” by her household. Quickly, the 2 have been organized to be married and sure to a life collectively. Dinh and Hongyen raised 5 kids in Cần Giuộc, about 20 miles south of Saigon, what would grow to be Ho Chi Minh Metropolis.
Within the years after Saigon fell in April 1975, harsh authorities restrictions outlined day by day life in south Vietnam. Meals of soy sauce and oatmeal. Electrical energy restricted to 2 days per week. The fixed menace of being positioned in re-education camps or relocated to New Financial Zones within the distant highlands. There was little work, much less pay and no alternative.
Dinh and Hongyen bought by constructing and promoting batteries. Dinh constructed them. Hongyen bought them. However desperation grew by the day.
So, there they sat, perched ahead, that cup. Out of choices, Dinh and Hongyen sought the recommendation of a “coi bói,” or fortune teller. He was named “Mr. Seven” and revered by the locals. Dinh and Hongyen requested the one query on their minds: Ought to we try an escape?
Mr. Seven rolled up a chunk of thread till it twined right into a ball and advised them in Vietnamese, “If it floats, you go. If it sinks, you keep.”
The ball of thread dropped. Then splashed. Then bobbed atop the water.
Mr. Seven nodded. He stated that so long as Dinh constructed the boat, and so long as they caught collectively, the escape would achieve success.
Over the following two years, Dinh disappeared for weeks at a time. He drove two hours to Vũng Tàu, out by the shoreline, and set about constructing his boat, buying one piece at a time. He strapped every board to his powder blue Vespa. Then drove it to Vũng Tàu. Then he bought the following one. Backwards and forwards he went. “Like an ant,” one daughter would later say.
Hongyen advised the children that their dad bought a job removed from house. In fact, he was working alongside the coast in secrecy, doing all he may to keep away from police consideration and the extreme jail time if caught plotting a defection. Members of the công an, the general public safety department of the Vietnam Folks’s Armed Forces, typically got here by the home searching for Dinh Du. Hongyen both lied or paid them off with cash or meals.
Dinh Du and Hongyen Dao raised 5 kids, together with daughters Kieu Thuy and Nga, in Cần Giuộc. (Courtesy of Yvonne Vu)
Little by little, week by week, a ship took form within the brush close to a fisherman’s wharf. Dinh, the ant, assembled a 32-foot picket hull. Sturdy. Strong. Dependable. He constructed a prime deck. He constructed and put in an engine.
Dinh deliberate for 50 folks, sufficient to hold his family and prolonged household. However then phrase bought out. Native villagers realized of the plan and begged for a spot. Dinh didn’t have additional house, however didn’t flip them away, both. He stated sure to greater than 30 further passengers.
Lastly, Might 23, 1982, arrived. Three automobiles took the household from Cần Giuộc to Vũng Tàu. They gathered in a hut close to the wharf. As darkness set in and the night time turned nonetheless, Dinh advised his 5 kids, “After I say go, you go. No trying again!”
The second got here. A pitter-patter of ft darting by means of the jungle bordering the shoreline. Wearing black, they ran by means of the rain, shedding slippers within the mud and persevering with barefoot. Nga, the household’s 8-year-old, grabbed her sister’s hand, yelling, “The place are we going?” Kieu Thuy, 12, pulling her sister alongside, burst, “We’re going to America!”
Eighty-three folks packed tightly onto the boat, stuffing provides beneath them. Dinh powered on the engine, snapping the quiet. The boat jolted, then constructed velocity, heading into the open waters of the South China Sea. Listening to a buzz behind them, the passengers seemed again. Two công an boats lower by means of the water, giving chase. Dinh cranked the engine tougher.
“I keep in mind the sensation,” Kieu Thuy says, “of the water on my face, as my dad sped up.”
An estimated 2 million Vietnamese fled by sea within the a long time following the autumn of Saigon. Rowboats. Flatboats. Fishing boats. One other million fled Laos and Cambodia. Some relocated through orderly evacuation and resettlement packages in North America, Europe or neighboring Asian nations. Many others took extra determined measures. Between 200,000 to 600,000 Vietnamese died from seize, drowning or hunger.
These asylum seekers got here to be generally known as Vietnamese boat folks, a reputation that has come to be thought to be pejorative — the type of dehumanizing language typically utilized in indexing immigrants. Different displaced folks in recent times — be it Cubans or Haitians crossing the Atlantic to Florida, or Afghans fleeing to Australia — have additionally been deemed “boat folks.”
Tracey Nguyễn Mang is the founding father of Vietnamese Boat Folks, a non-profit that preserves tales of the Vietnamese diaspora in podcasts and public packages. Her household escaped when she was 3, and she or he recollects rising up with a stigma that was assigned to the older generations and inherited by the youthful — the persistent concept that being a ship refugee meant “being inherently determined.” The stigma created “a tradition that you simply don’t present your vulnerabilities.”
“There’s lots of unspokenness, not simply from the general public, however even inside households,” Mang says. “A part of that’s the trauma. A part of it’s tradition. A part of it’s generational language obstacles. It takes a long time, relating to historical past like this, for communities to even be comfy speaking about it.
“Once you migrate to a unique nation, your solely focus is to outlive. It’s to assimilate. It’s to offer your little one a life you risked all the pieces for. You’re not nervous about publicizing your hardships. You’re actually simply head-down surviving.”
At the moment, second, third and even fourth generations are unpacking what it took to return of age in a unique world. Mang says they’re reclaiming the concept of what it meant — and what it means — to be boat folks.
“They weren’t determined,” Mang explains. “They have been brave. They have been survivors. And never solely do they survive their journey, however they’d the resilience to return to a rustic and rebuild their lives.”
The South China Sea is bigger than the realm of India. From Subic Bay within the north to the Strait of Malacca within the south, its 1.4 million sq. miles contact the seashores of Vietnam and Malaysia, of Singapore and Brunei, of the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Taiwan. Two-hundred and fifty-some-odd land options — islands, reefs, shoals — dot waters outlined by a sophisticated historical past of important geopolitical commerce passages and conflicting territorial claims. Its edges each guard from outsiders and join the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, linking one a part of the world to the opposite.
Dinh Du pushed his hand-built engine to its brink, charging into these waters. Glancing again over his shoulder, he noticed the police boats fade behind. After all of the prep, all of the planning, the escape was not about working, however as a substitute about surviving. Their hopes hinged on two choices: rescue by a passing boat or making it almost 700 miles to Singapore. The alternate options? Seize or demise.
Two days and three nights handed. Chapped by the solar and low on provides, the 83 aboard drifted alongside almost 400 miles south of Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, someplace east of the Malaysian coast. They noticed passing ships over the earlier days however none stopped. By now, they have been midway to Singapore. There was no turning again.
That third night time was a very calm night, darkness divided by the glint of lapping waves reflecting a giant moon slung low. Vacancy all over the place.
Then the leak started.
It was round 3 a.m. on Might 26, 1982. The ocean seeped in slowly, at first, soaking meals and garments saved alongside the bilge. Some flinched awake, feeling the ocean upon their ft. Because the boat jerked, Dinh advised everybody to stay calm. He was ready for this, he stated. He activated an electrical pump he put in in case of such an emergency.
The pump gargled, burped, sputtered. Nothing.
Everybody aboard scrambled and flailed, cupping palms, scooping water. One distraught passenger, a villager, jumped overboard, leaving water rippling in place, by no means resurfacing.
Within the chaos, Kieu Thuy watched her father wrench at a pump that wouldn’t reply. She noticed the second wash over him. Naked acceptance. In Vietnamese he stated to her, “I can’t repair it.”
Dinh reached for the lone misery sign on the boat. Urgent his eyes closed in prayer, he raised one hand into the air and fired a single flare streaking into the night time sky. The pop above lit up an empty sea.
The Brewton was house to 18 officers and 260 sailors, enlistees from all around the United States. (Nationwide Archives and Data Administration)
The usBrewton’s six-month 1982 WestPac deployment set out from Pearl Harbor in late April, taking the ship and its males to Subic Bay within the Philippines. Commissioned in 1972, the 438-foot-long Knox-class frigate was a “sub-hunter.” Initially tasked with monitoring Soviet submarines, by ’82, the ship was lively, however rising dated. Its radar show amounted to indistinguishable inexperienced blobs on a black display. Extra obviously, it wasn’t but outfitted with satellite tv for pc navigation.
“We have been nonetheless capturing stars,” says Jack Papp, a floor warfare officer.
The Brewton was house to 18 officers and 260 sailors, enlistees from all around the United States. Some have been there as a result of they selected to be — younger guys from the Naval Academy, ROTCs or officer coaching faculty. Others maybe as a consequence, possibly having as soon as stood in entrance of a choose who steered he be part of the Navy as a substitute of the correctional system. Some have been younger males seeing the world for the primary time. Others have been old-timers who noticed heavy motion in Vietnam. They have been White, Black, Asian, Latino. They despatched messages house utilizing ham radios.
“We have been in all probability extra consultant of what the nation seemed like than you’d think about,” says John Popek, a essential propulsion assistant on the ship.
That’s, even when the nation was uncertain the way to really feel about them.
“You need to keep in mind, at the moment, folks didn’t thanks to your service,” Popek says. “It was a unique time. Morale was horrible. There was nonetheless a hangover from Vietnam.”
Crossing the Pacific, the Brewton in Might 1982 arrived at Subic Bay, the place it was scheduled to accompany the usRanger, an plane service, by means of the South China Sea to the Strait of Malacca. Days rolled collectively. “At sea, you type of go into auto-mode,” says Papp, 24 years outdated then, 65 years outdated now. “You do division work. You’re taking 12 off. You do it once more.”
The early morning hours of Might 26 have been no completely different.
Till a single burst of sunshine popped over a far horizon.
It was round 0400 when a name got here from the sign bridge reporting what was doubtlessly a misery sign within the distance. Capt. Owen C. Martin Jr., in his remaining night time as Brewton’s commanding officer, had a call to make. Pursue or keep the course.
Within the engine room, Popek felt the boat lurch, its 35,000-shaft horsepower steam turbine powering down.
“I instantly knew one thing was occurring,” he remembers. “Ships are usually not nice except they’re shifting ahead. You don’t simply decelerate.”
Phrase unfold that one thing may be on the market, someplace. Martin despatched a deckhand to get up Capt. Robert Okay. Bolger, who was scheduled to be sworn in later that day to alleviate him as commanding officer. In the event that they have been to try a rescue, any refugees taken aboard could be his accountability.
As Bolger rose, Martin referred to as for the captain’s gig and a utility boat to analyze, sending Brewton’s two smaller vessels out into the darkish. A couple of minutes later, they radioed again, reporting a small picket boat, roughly 30 ft, was situated and in peril, taking over water. Given orders to examine, the Navy sailors boarded the shaky craft. One of many Vietnamese passengers, a person who’d beforehand been jailed for working with the U.S. Military, translated between Dinh Du and the U.S. sailors. These sailors radioed again to Martin that the boat posed no menace. Martin responded by declaring all 82 aboard as refugees and moved the Brewton subsequent to the boats.
On deck, a row of sailors lined the railing, searching into the black. Some pointed, making out some shapes within the distance.
The Brewton’s highlight lit up the water.
The 82 refugees left behind all their belongings when boarding the usBrewton. (USS Brewton cruise ebook)
“I simply keep in mind being up there as we pulled alongside it, seeing all of the folks on that factor and simply pondering, ‘How the hell is that factor even floating?’” says Dave Taormina, a 20-year-old radioman on the time.
“They have been in a state of shock,” Popek says.
The refugees climbed onto the 2 smaller naval vessels earlier than boarding the Brewton, leaving all their belongings behind. The hull of the frigate rose like a wall in entrance of them. They arched their necks, trying up 50 ft to the deck above, seeing faces trying again at them.
One after the other, the 82 climbed up the Brewton’s lodging ladder, reaching the highest, greedy at sailors’ palms to tug them aboard. Some Vietnamese-speaking crew members surveyed the refugees. Martin and Bolger urged everybody to collect no matter additional garments or provides have been accessible. Seeing some infants among the many rescued, Bolger searched the Brewton for humanitarian items, understanding diapers have been saved someplace.
Different sailors arrange a medical triage on the fantail. Some rushed to heat meals within the galley. Others stocked showers with recent cleaning soap. Mattresses have been unfold across the deck. Spare garments have been distributed, sending kids scampering away in T-shirts all the way down to their ankles.
Youngsters have been among the many refugees taken aboard the Brewton. (USS Brewton cruise ebook)
The sailors arrange a projector. Everybody settled onto the mattresses with bowls of Rice-A-Roni. “Saturday Evening Fever” flickered upon a display, making it the primary American film most of them would see.
Involved about leaving an unmanned boat on the open sea, a number of sailors shot 50-caliber machine weapons into the water, sinking Dinh Du’s boat.
All advised, the refugees spent lower than half a day aboard the Brewton. The usFox, an American cruiser, was deployed to choose them up for transport to Singapore. Underneath a day solar, the 82 have been lowered into a number of small launches for switch to the Fox. Drifting again out into the South China Sea, with life jackets cinched tight, they seemed up and waved.
“Cảm ơn! Cảm ơn!”
Thanks. Thanks.
Leaning over the railing, the sailors waved again.
Dropped off in Singapore by the usFox, the 82 Vietnamese boat folks entered the UN Fee for Refugees, hoping to be accepted, however fearing a fast return to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis. When resettlement choices have been introduced in areas of North America and Europe, they felt profound aid.
Dinh Du, then 42, advised officers he had a brother dwelling in Southern California and hoped to hitch him there.
After three months in Singapore, the household was shipped to Galang Refugee Camp in Indonesia to await processing for relocation in america. They realized fundamental English and took lessons on American customs and monetary literacy.
After three months in Singapore, the household was shipped to Galang Refugee Camp in Indonesia to await processing for relocation in america. (Courtesy of Yvonne Vu)
Six months later, within the spring of 1983, Dinh and Hongyen, together with their 5 kids, arrived in america. They have been ready. Hongyen had the household financial savings — roughly $7,000 saved up for years from the battery enterprise — sewed into pockets of her garments on the time of the rescue.
They settled about 30 miles south of Los Angeles, close to the Little Saigon part of Orange County, what’s now house to just about 200,000 Vietnamese-Individuals — the oldest, largest focus of Vietnamese-Individuals wherever in america. The dominion is a degree of satisfaction for these compelled to depart a lot of themselves behind. Signage in Little Saigon’s main business space is sort of completely in Vietnamese, as are tv stations, radio stations and newspapers within the space.
When the time got here to fill out U.S. citizenship types, all the youngsters picked American names. Amongst them, Kieu Thuy selected Yvonne. Her sister Nga selected Kandi.
In time, they created households of their very own. Yvonne met her husband, Douglas Vu, a fellow first-generation Vietnamese immigrant, and had two kids. They constructed a cushty life in Fountain Valley, Calif., about 5 miles from her dad and mom in Westminster, close to Little Saigon.
As her kids grew up, Yvonne shared tales that felt like fables. How grandfather constructed a ship along with his personal two palms. How they ran by means of that jungle within the rain. How that searchlight appeared means out within the distance, out within the South China Sea, turning of their route from an American ship.
These have been the bedtime tales.
Those her daughter fell asleep to.
Hongyen Dao, left, and Dinh Du fled Vietnam to offer a greater life for his or her kids. (Jennelle Fong for The Athletic)
Hongyen Dao, 78, sits with excellent posture, smiling beneath smoke-gray hair, palms crossed upon her lap. She’s lived on this house in Westminster for 20 years. Her backyard is spectacular, full with orchids planted way back.
It’s late within the day, that point when a day solar hits excellent, lighting up the shell inlays of ornate cupboards and the darkish cherrywood of Hongyen’s hand-carved chairs. The lounge is vibrant and one story turns into the following. Just a few footage are shared with Hongyen and her daughters, Yvonne and Kandi; footage not too long ago pulled out of John Popek’s attic. Images of American sailors and Vietnamese refugees milling a couple of crowded boat deck. Images of youngsters being lowered onto smaller boats. Images of their household in life jackets waving goodbye to the lads atop the deck of the usBrewton.
All three girls cowl their mouths and battle again tears. Yvonne and Kandi shuffle by means of the photographs, narrating alongside.
“That’s my brother!”
“That’s my cousin!”
“Oh my god.”
“I’m going to cry.”
“Our uncle!”
Hongyen leans ahead quietly, brushing a hand throughout every image. She says nothing, however her eyes say all the pieces. When the time got here to depart Cần Giuộc 4 a long time in the past, she almost referred to as off the entire escape. Her mom, aged and frail, was in no situation to journey into the South China Sea, and Hongyen couldn’t bear to depart her behind. There could be nobody left to deal with her.
Explaining this quietly, Yvonne shakes her head and places up a hand. “We don’t speak about that,” Kandi whispers.
Hongyen by no means noticed her mom once more.
Images of the rescue shared with the household introduced again waves of reminiscences. (Jennelle Fong for The Athletic)
With every image, each second comes again to the floor. The room quiets as Hongyen speaks in Vietnamese.
“All we needed,” Yvonne interprets, “was a greater life for the youngsters.”
As afternoon turns to night in Little Saigon, a automobile door shuts outdoors Hongyen’s home and all heads flip towards the door.
Right here is Lilia Vu.
“Hiiiiiiiiiiiii!” all of them cheer.
Hugs give option to dialog and Lilia explains she hoped to have gotten right here earlier, however a day photoshoot with a brand new sponsor ran lengthy. Then site visitors from Los Angeles was brutal. She’s nonetheless in full make-up from the photoshoot and jokes that her face is sore from smiling. It’s been a busy day and she or he’s barely eaten. After all, Yvonne has a bowl of pho ready on the desk for her.
Lilia is a 26-year-old skilled golfer. A former UCLA star, she’s spent the final 5 years navigating the very best highs and the bottom lows of the professional recreation. She has the disposition to match — charming and candid out of the highlight, quiet and uneasy in it. She’s proud to say she spends half her free time devouring books, and embarrassed to say she spends the opposite half on TikTok.
Dinh Du, middle proper, confused to Lilia Vu, pictured at age 4 with cousin Regina and brother Andre, that she wanted to seek out pleasure in her recreation to realize her objectives. (Courtesy of J. Lindeberg and Yvonne Vu)
Navigating the world has gotten just a little trickier of late. Lilia has spent a lot of the final 15 months in some type of dreamscape. 5 wins. Two main victories. Almost $5 million in earnings. Endorsements. Fame. Consideration.
She gained her first LPGA Tour occasion in February 2023. Then gained her first profession main, the Chevron Championship, eight weeks later. Struggles adopted, resulting in worry these wins may’ve been flukes, however then a win on the AIG Girls’s Open made Lilia the primary American lady to win a number of majors in a single 12 months since Juli Inkster in 1999.
All this from the identical participant who completed the 2020 season ranked 1,330th on this planet.
At the moment, after 28 weeks ranked No. 1 on this planet between August 2023 and March 2024, Lilia is a bona fide star.
However right here, in her grandmother’s home, Lilia remains to be Kha-Tu Du Vu, her given identify. The little lady who grew up talking Vietnamese to each her dad and mom and grandparents and copying the swing of her older brother, Andre, who would later play golf at UC Riverside.
Lilia eats her pho after which, as night settles over Little Saigon, walks into the lounge to hitch her grandmother. Aspect-by-side on the couch, they lean shut collectively, sharing phrases just one one other can hear. They each smile. Then Lilia places an arm round her and leans in shut, giving a delicate squeeze.
Close by, atop an ornate bookshelf, footage of Dinh Du sit subsequent to a burning candle. A gold urn sits beneath a pink flower.
Rising up, Lilia checked out her grandpa — her “ông ngoại” — as a candy outdated man who labored at an auto store throughout the day and doted upon his spouse at night time. Dinh cooked dinner for Hongyen almost each night. He constructed her a inexperienced awning within the yard and tended to a koi pond. He had a nasty again and sore knees.
Solely later did a unique model come into sight.
In March 2020, Lilia’s younger profession felt totally stalled. As soon as a school All-American and the No. 1-ranked girls’s beginner on this planet, she turned professional a 12 months earlier and instantly earned standing on the LPGA Tour. Then, simply as rapidly, she misplaced that standing. Missed cuts stacked up. Unhealthy ideas crept in. Perhaps she was by no means that good within the first place. Maybe regulation faculty was a greater choice.
Amid a rising pandemic, Lilia was scheduled to play a low-level event in Florida, however wanted to go to her grandfather first. He was in a hospital with some coronary heart points. Docs anticipated a full restoration, however Lilia needed a while with him earlier than touring. She opened up about how she was feeling.
“I advised him that it was all an excessive amount of, and I simply — I didn’t have it,” she says now. “I couldn’t work out the way to have enjoyable anymore.”
Dinh Du noticed the stress in his granddaughter’s eyes and advised her to cease worrying and begin enjoying. He stated to deal with her golf and ignore all the pieces else, to seek out pleasure within the recreation once more.
Lilia heard him, however possibly didn’t perceive him. Not totally, at the very least. She was 22. The event in Florida ended with one other missed lower, and Lilia returned house to study she was too late. Her grandfather was in emergency care and unresponsive. He died March 9, 2020.
In that ending, a journey as soon as foretold may lastly be totally understood. How this mechanic from Cần Giuộc breathed life into generations. How a 32-foot boat constructed by his palms modified a lot for therefore many. How he by no means as soon as took credit score for any of it.
“He didn’t get the household out of there as a result of he needed reward for it,” Lilia says. “He bought them out of there as a result of he needed to get them out of there. It’s simply mind-blowing to me that every one this needed to occur for me to have the prospect to be right here immediately.”
4 years after Dinh Du’s passing, his granddaughter, Lilia Vu — Kha-Tu Du Vu — will journey to Paris this summer season. She’ll board a aircraft, cross an ocean, and stand upon the most important stage on this planet, one so massive it may be seen from the villages of Vietnam and the shores of the South China Sea. Lilia will signify america within the XXXIII Olympic Summer season Video games.
“I’ve realized that in order for you one thing, you must go,” she says.
Epilogue
All advised, 5 members of the usBrewton crew, males starting from 65 to 80 years outdated, have been capable of be tracked down for this story. Capt. Martin died in 2012. To a person, every stated the identical factor about Might 26, 1982 – the rescue was the only best spotlight of his navy profession. All have been awarded the Navy Humanitarian Service Medal for his or her actions that morning.
“You drop them off and surprise, you realize, are they gonna be OK?” Jack Papp stated not too long ago. “The place are they gonna go? What’ll occur to those folks?”
“I’ve all the time thought of these of us,” stated John Thompson, now a 68-year-old CFA, then a 26-year-old lieutenant junior grade, “and simply questioned how issues have turned out for them.”
Bob Bolger, who took over because the Brewton’s commanding officer the identical day the Vusietnamese have been transferred to the usFox, is 81 now. He likes hammy jokes, giving excursions on the San Diego Maritime Museum, and hanging out along with his 2-year-old grandson, Ryder. When contacted for this story this previous winter, Bob didn’t fairly consider what he was listening to — {that a} 12-year-old lady from that tiny boat within the South China Sea had a daughter on her option to changing into a U.S. Olympian.
He additionally couldn’t consider Hongyen, Kieu Thuy and Nga lived solely an hour up the highway.
So a reunion was organized.
It was a Saturday morning in late Might, almost 42 years to the day that the Brewton came across a small ship in a big sea. Bob ambled down a road alongside Coronado Island, not removed from the Naval Amphibious Base.
Recognizing “Capt. Bob” coming her means, Yvonne Vu brushed away tears and coated her mouth. Her sister Kandi did the identical. Hongyen clasped her palms collectively, repeating, “Cảm ơn. Cảm ơn.” Thanks. Thanks.
Gathering on a small bench, all 4 shared tales of the place they have been and what they remembered. Yvonne advised Bob she wished her father was nonetheless round to fulfill him. Bob stated he wished the opposite males of the Brewton may meet the household.
Bob handed Yvonne his copy of the cruise ebook from the Brewton’s 1982 WestPac deployment. She leafed by means of alongside her mom and sister, all leaning collectively. Handing it again to Bob, Yvonne was met by an outstretched palm. No, no, he advised her. You retain it.
“That needs to be in your loved ones,” he stated.
For the following technology.
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; graphics/movement design: Drew Jordan, John Bradford / The Athletic; photographs: Jennelle Fong; Amy Remus / Getty Pictures; video: Brett Michel)