Dr. Carolee Tran, a trained psychologist who lives in Davis, was among that group.
"These were the most precious pictures in the bag she carried," Tran said as she showed CBS News Sacramento the images.
"He had my family and my grandparents, aunts and uncle go to Phu Guoc Island so that we would be close to the ocean so that could get out more easily," Tran said.
For the next three weeks, they waited on the island.
"My grandfather knew that that was an American ship that was picking up refugees. So we started like 8 a.m. in the morning trying to get out. And for several hours, none of the fishermen would take us out," Tran said.
"Finally, my mom had this huge sack of money, and she was on her knees begging the different fishermen and told them, 'If you take us out, you can have all this money,'" Tran said.
"Once I got onto the boat and stood on the scow, my mom told me to jump, jump onto the scows. And there were just people being trampled," Tran said.
"And at that point, I was being thrown around like a rag doll and I was suffocating," Tran said.
Carolee felt alone. "I stood at the edge of the ship and I could see my sister down below with my grandparents," Tran said. "Then I heard the loudest orchestra of humans, human suffering, people wailing and crying and yelling."
"My baby sister, who was 18 months at the time, we had no milk for her. So three days into the journey, we could tell that she was fading and she was dying," Tran said.
"My mom went around the ship and begged people to give her baby some milk or else she would die. And luckily, a mother of like four children shared the little milk that she had," Tran said.
There, Carolee, her family, and thousands of refugees found shelter at a makeshift camp known as Tent City.
"I thought he was joking, so I was so mad at him. I chased him down and hit him. And so then I look and I see that my dad was indeed there walking towards the tent with my mom," Tran said. Carolee and her family then headed for Camp Pendleton in San Diego - and would make a new life in Northern California.
Today, the married mother of two counts her blessings and knows the sacrifices made by refugees coming to America.
Dr. Tran specializes in treating war and refugee trauma. She's an associate professor of psychology at UC Davis.
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