BASRAH, Iraq " Moving to the United States had never really been a part of Bin Liu’s plans. Life in China was good. He had graduated high school, passed all the testing required to enter the military academy, earned his bachelor’s degree in communication and received a commission in the Chinese Air Force.
His career was progressing exactly as it should; he attained the rank of captain and became the commander of a communications and navigation company. It was a satisfying job and life in the military was good.
The simplest of things can change a life-long plan, however. Liu had 15 years of service and a promotion to major under his belt when a chance encounter with an old acquaintance turned his life to a new direction.
“My wife works in Texas doing Asian affairs, and had been in the states for more than 12 years,” said Liu. “She had gone back to China to visit her family and we met at the party they had for her. We were both divorced at the time, so we decided to get to know each other again.”
“We still kept in touch when she went back to the states, calling each other every day,” Liu added. “We finally figured out we loved each other, and she asked me what I thought about coming to America. I said I’d never really thought about it!”
Giving up his commission and gaining approval from the Chinese government to emigrate to the U.S. wasn’t really difficult, Liu said. Chinese policy requires an extra waiting period before allowing citizens with access to classified material to leave the country; but since his job was not classified, the most difficult part of joining his bride-to-be was getting a visa.
“The process to get my visa was very hard and took a year and a half. There was no problem with China letting me leave, but you just have to wait on the paperwork,” Liu said. “I sent all my applications to the U.S. embassy in China, and they sent all the paperwork to Washington, (D.C.), where it was approved and sent back. That alone took about a year.”
Liu made it to Texas in November 2007, and has now been married for four years, he said.
“When I came here, I thought, ‘what am I going to do?’ My English was not that good, I knew I needed to learn, and I just wanted to do something,” he said. “I didn’t want to stay at home. So I was talking to my wife about it and she said, ‘How about the military life?’ I said, ‘I like the military life.’ Because I had been in the Chinese Air Force for 15 years and I just like the military. So she said, ‘why don’t you think about that?’”
After a year of learning enough English to get by, Liu said he conducted a quick search on the Internet for job opportunities in the U.S. Army.
“Actually, at that time, I didn’t know the difference between the National Guard and active duty; I thought, maybe it’s the same thing,” Liu said. “I found a number online for a local recruiter, and it turned out it was for the National Guard.”
Undeterred, Liu set up an appointment. He said his recruiter told him the best option he had to find a job with the Texas Guard was to become a mechanic, because there were not enough to fill the job field at the time. So he signed on the dotted line and headed to basic training, trading in the Chinese stars of an Air Force communications officer for the stripes of an enlisted mechanic in the Texas Army National Guard.
“My English still was not very good when I went to basic,” Liu admitted.
Improving his language skills has become very important to him, he added. He is now a sergeant with Headquarters and Support Company, 36th Division Special Troops Battalion. Even though he is deployed to southern Iraq for Operation New Dawn, he continues his studies to master English.
“I’m thinking about becoming an officer again,” Liu said. “My wife told me I should, so I said I need to learn more English " that way I would have the confidence to take the tests. I don’t really care what job I would end up doing (because officer assignments are based on the needs of the Army), as long as it is full-time.”
Liu said he loves the structure of military life and would like to continue his career full time, whether that means transferring to the active-duty Army after the completion of his deployment, or possibly finding an Active Guard and Reserve position on Camp Mabry in Austin.
“It was a good decision to follow my wife over here. I like this country " the environment, the people, even the food,” Liu said. “In China, the government controls everything. So you don’t have a lot of … well, you do have freedoms, but not so much the freedom of speech. Here, there’s no pressure and no problems saying what I think.”
“Before I came here, people (in China) would always say that America is the ‘freedom country,’ but I had no idea what they meant,” he added. “But after I’ve lived here, I realized, I can do anything I want, as long as it’s under the law. This is the freedom country.”
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