ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- In Vietnam when I was about seven years old in 1978, I remember playing soccer with my friends under a huge tree full of leaves and branches. I heard the booming sound of helicopters whirling overhead, and looked up in the blue sky and saw the dark helicopters flying past the trees above me. I was excited to see the movement of the helicopters and I was very scared at the time. I wasn't aware, nor did I understand the presence of the helicopters -- as they turned out to be part of the war machines that changed our entire country and our life.
Our family was poor, not as fortunate as those families living in Saigon, the former Capitol of South Vietnam. We lived in a rundown brick house in a rural town called "Long Hai" along the fishing village of the South China Sea Ocean. After the country fell into the hands of the North Vietnamese Communist regime, in 1975, my father, a former South Vietnamese Soldier, had to spend days out in the sea fishing to raise enough money to buy food to feed our entire family. My mother and I had to go out to the beach area and catch delicate snails in order to collect their shells and sell them to the local craft shop. With cash in hand, my mother purchased vegetables and fruits from the local farms for me to resell at the local market. Most of the time I was responsible to care for my brothers while our parents were away working.
One late night, it was windy, chilly and breezes full of salt air were blowing across the sand dunes from the ocean, my father directed four of us boys out to the beach. Not knowing what was ahead for us, we were nervous and scared. One of my younger brothers was crying like a hungry child begging for food. We were led to the escape area where we waited for our mother to arrive.
Tirelessly hours later, the sound of a wooden boat full of hundreds of men, women and children arrived in the darkness of the night from the rough sea. We were carried out to the boat through the cold, salty and rough sea by unknown men. Our journey of the so called "Boat People" to the land of the free had begun…
In June of 1980, we finally arrived at J.F. Kennedy Airport under the sponsorship of the Central Presbyterian Church in Summit, New Jersey. Our new American life had begun…
During the years of 1988-1991, I had a high school classmate and a good friend whose family was in the military. We were in the same electronic and computer classes. After school, I went to his house on the military base and helped him build a homemade circuit board and we played video games together. We often shared family stories. He told me how his family had to move to places unexpectedly because his father served in the military and they had a good life. From that time on, it triggered a thought in my mind and peaked my interest in wanting to be part of the Army in some way or another. When I graduated from high school due to my limitations, I knew I could not join the Army. In spite of that during my senior year, I enrolled into a computer class as an extra curriculum course where I excelled in some basic computer programming. I was chosen to work at the Army base for a couple of hours right after school under the special Workforce program run by the school.
I knew accepting the job working part time for the Army could possibly come with lot of job opportunities and advancements. From then on for the past 25 plus years, I have contributed and been involved in many challenging projects such as the Y2K transition efforts, BRACs within CECOM and a few years at West Point USMAPS supporting Cadet of Soldiers. As the result of this work, I've received many cash awards, medal awards, and praises from Commanders. But that's not why I chose to serve.
I serve because I do not want to see any American family having to go through the same nightmare that our family has been through by living the hardship of being apart of the "Boat People". I serve because our Nation gives us the gift of Freedom and our country stands as the greatest country in the entire planet. I serve because I wanted to be part of the processes that protect and preserve the constitution of the United States of America so that we all can live freely regardless of who we are. I was given an opportunity to serve, small or big, direct or indirect and it will always give me a sense of honor and pride to be part of the trusted professionals.
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