The crowd of 70 mostly veterans stood in applause for a 67-year-old Vietnam native at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History on Sunday afternoon.
Tim Nguyen had just told his life story -- the story that has forever connected him to the central Arkansas town of 28,000.
On April 29, 1975, Nguyen, then an airman in the South Vietnamese air force, quite literally jumped on what is believed to be the last C-130 out of Vietnam.
The aircraft's rear ramp remained open as the plane was stopping and going on an airstrip at Tan Son Nhut Air Base where Nguyen was stationed. During a pause in North Vietnamese fire, Nguyen, then 24, dashed to the moving plane and hopped aboard before the ramp door closed.
That C-130, which made it safely to Thailand with 492 people on board, now sits at the front gate of Little Rock Air Force Base.
"It's emotional," Nguyen (pronounced "win") said of the two times he's visited the Jacksonville air base to see the plane. "It brings back a lot of memories."
The Nha Trang native spoke at the museum on Sunday afternoon before an hourlong preview of The Vietnam War, Ken Burns' upcoming 10-part documentary series.
While an hourlong preview sounds more like a feature-length film than a teaser, the full series -- billed as "an immersive 360-degree narrative" -- spans 18 hours.
Sunday's event, funded by a Public Broadcasting Service grant, was part of a series of local events across the U.S. promoting the series, which will air its first episode on Sunday on Arkansas Educational Television Network.
"[The series] includes rarely seen, digitally remastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th Century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, revelatory audio recording from inside the Kennedy Johnson and Nixon administrations and more than 100 iconic musical recordings by many of the greatest artists of the era," a news release said.
The preview shown at the museum over the weekend received a positive reaction, but several veterans wondered afterward whether the documentary series would capture the horrible treatment they encountered when returning home from the war.
Much like the displayed C-130, Nguyen said the images in the film conjured many memories from his youth.
He elected not to return to Vietnam after making his remarkable escape in 1975; instead, Nguyen fled to the U.S. where he was granted refugee status before attaining citizenship in 1981.
He learned English, attended vocational school and completed college.
Nguyen made it a goal to work on C-130s, eventually landing a job at Lockheed Martin, the defense technologies company which developed the aircraft.
"This country gave me too much," said Nguyen, who now lives on the Alabama coast. "I needed to give back."
It all came full circle when he helped develop aircraft self-defense mechanisms for flight crews like the one that extracted him safely from his war-torn country four decades ago.
On Sunday, he spoke movingly about the American flag and the pride he has for his adopted home country.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman's military and veterans liaison, retired Col. Anita Deason, inspired the room to give a second round of applause for Nguyen after thanking him for his speech.
"You talked about how lucky you are to be here," Deason said. "Our country is lucky to have you here."
The first five chapters of The Vietnam War will air in succession from Sunday-Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. on AETN; the sixth through 10th episodes will air Sept. 24-28.
Metro on 09/11/2017