Army Maj. Dat Nguyen shares his story about his family’s escape from communist-ruled Vietnam and how he pursued the American Dream.
Video by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Sean Castellano, Defense Media Activity Europe
Transcript
Army Maj. Dat Nguyen: You just came from a country where you had no future. And now you get to go to what most would consider the greatest country in the world. I think it’s a second chance at life, so to speak. My name is Maj. Dat Nguyen. I work at Africom as an operation analyst in the J-3 directorate. So, for me growing up in Vietnam, I was still a child at this point. I remember bits and pieces and what the adults would tell me later on. The conflict ended in 1975. Before the conflict, our family was part of the old South. And so, when the communists won the conflict, anybody who had ties to the old South were pretty much, pretty much blacklisted. It came to the point where my relatives decided this is not how we want to continue. There’s no future for us in Vietnam. And we started looking for ways to escape. So, we escaped by boat. We all loaded onto the boat at midnight, pitch dark. imagine, you have a boat, the size, 2.2 meters wide, 1.2 meters high, and about 15 meters long. Not a big boat. This is like a fishing trawler. And then now, imagine squeezing in 149 people on that little boat. We spent three days and four nights at sea, but luckily for us, we ran into an oil rig, and they directed us to Malaysia, and that’s where we ended up. Most of the refugees were chosen to go to the United States, because of the ties from the Vietnam conflict. Since I’ve been in the United States, I’ve been given an opportunity to go to school for free, and being able to go to West Point, where I received all this great training to be a leader. And I think this is one way that I look at it as giving back to the United States for the opportunities that the country has given me. Every day when I put on the uniform, I consider it a privilege to serve. And for me, the country, the United States, gave me a second chance to make something of myself. Had I been stuck in Vietnam, I don’t know what would’ve happened to me. You know the American Dream, right? People say that a lot, and I really truly believe in that. And I think our family is a living embodiment of that aspect. For us, America is still an amazing country. We are truly grateful for this nation.