Wednesday, August 12 2009 @ 11:32 AM MDT
Contributed by: James Van Thach
Views: 1,627 |
 NHA Magazine -- Editor’s Note: After six years, there are currently more than 1.6 million veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the war drags on, more and more Americans, especially those with family members in the military, are feeling the impacts of the conflict. The Asian American community is no exception. According to the US Census, there are 282,000 Asian American veterans in the armed forces. Although, the number of Vietnamese American soldiers may be uncounted, they have signed up and fought honorably. nhaø magazine contributor Monya De caught up with three Vietnamese-American soldiers, whose insights offer a rare glimpse into their lives on the battlefield.
Major Tuan Pham, a career Marines officer with a deep love of the military, relates how his family history and own rise through the U.S. ranks have inextricably linked him with the Iraq effort. Pham, 37, experienced the fear of the Vietnam War first hand.
“During the Vietnam War my family sided with the Americans, then the Americans left. We paid dearly. We lost our homeland and everything else. My grandfather was kidnapped and beheaded by the Viet cong. My father was killed in action fighting the Viet cong.”
“After the Fall of Saigon, our neighbors were imprisoned in concentration camps called ‘Re-Education Camps.’ Some did not make it out. My family, including myself, was “encouraged” to relocate to the New Economic Zone (Vung Kinh Te Moi—a collective farming experiment) to work as peasants.”
“Our beloved Saigon name was taken away, and changed to something else.”
At age 16, Pham arrived in the United States, where he attended school and worked as a newspaper delivery boy and dishwasher. Just three years later, he enlisted in the Marines in 1989 and was sent to Iraq where he served as an artillery crewman during Operation Desert Storm. He has now earned a bachelor’s degree and an MBA in addition to earning the rank of major.
He credits his family members, who have deep traditions in the military and public service, with giving him encouragement along the way. He notes that having a strong accent presented a challenge at times, but was ultimately surmountable. “Since I arrived here late at the age of 16, my English is accent-heavy. I know most people think if you don’t speak or write perfect English, then you’re stupid or incompetent. I try to combat that negative view by working hard at every job I’ve ever been assigned to.”
As one who has known troubled times, Pham is openly sympathetic to the Iraqi plight, and warmly recalls very human moments from the country. He says the Iraqis were intrigued by his Asian face in a sea of white American advisers, and jokingly called him “Jackie Chan!”
Recalling Saigon, he says, “Thousands from my hometown took to the ocean to escape the harsh communist rule. Many perished. I just hope we do not repeat this in Iraq ...This is a problem we, as a country, have created. Iraq’s a mess now. But we can’t leave and walk away.”
Like Pham, Captain John Dinh, 32, arrived in America during high school (in 1989) and has succeeded in the military despite struggling to learn English. As an immigrant in the military, he also had to defy stereotypes his peers held about him . When Dinh became interested in the army, his mother initially discouraged him, because the Vietnam War was still so fresh in her mind. But, as he relates, he fell into a group of delinquent friends, and she quickly saw the value of some discipline. He went to boot camp, followed by reservist duty, active duty, then officer candidate school and flight school. 
His first tour of Iraq lasted from January to July 2005, flying more than 100 combat missions out of Al Asad, an air base in the Al Anbar province. The second tour was as a FAC (Forward Air Controller) from February to October 2006, when he was attached to an Army Mechanized Infantry Battalion in Al Anbar province. In this tour, he was in charge of a 12-person team consisting of two other officers, and nine enlisted Marines engaged in ground combat.
Dinh recalls that he had briefly considered some “boring” desk jobs related to his college degree in finance, including bank loan officer, but his childhood dream to fly prevailed. Along the way, he met the unique challenges of being an Asian in the military, from being teased by Caucasian servicemen for his accent, to surprise that he was Vietnamese and over five foot eight, to the politely raised eyebrows of relatives who asked what kind of work he was doing.
To cope with being different, he focused on his assignments, such as helping an Iraqi town “at the mercy of the thugs who murdered and kidnapped the [townspeople] in order to push their agendas.”
“The Iraqi people really needed our presence. You would think that Iraqis wouldn’t murder other Iraqis if their struggle is with the US, but sadly that is not the case.” Perhaps because their situation was so desperate, Dinh was not treated any differently than the white servicemen around him in Iraq.
He is proud of the fact that a significant amount of time spent in Iraq was for civic assignments such as making communities sustainable and functional following the U.S. departure. But it was not always easy, especially when he saw the children who were caught in the fray. “As a father of two, I just wished the kids I met there weren’t subjected to a war, but hopefully the outcome of this (war) will be good for them and much like me, one day (they’ll) have the opportunities they would not have had otherwise.”
Now, Dinh is excited about being back in flight school to become a fighter pilot (“going from Goose to Maverick in Top Gun”), and plans to fly until he retires. For young people who might be interested in such a career, he offers some advice. “I think we are at the time when most Vietnamese that are second or third generation Americans understand the difference in the cultures and are more willing to explore different career paths even though it may not be something their parents wish them to do.”
“So, if anyone has a desire to fly like I did...then I highly encourage them to do research and go talk to people and then they can figure out if it’s a lifestyle they want. It’s not easy, but it is very rewarding.”
Dinh Nguyen Thanh, who goes by Tino Dinh, grew up in the shadow of the space program; 15 minutes away from NASA headquarters in Houston. The 31-year-old is now a captain of the U.S. Air Force. He also came from a distinctive Vietnamese military background. “My father went to Vo Bi Da Lat, the Vietnam National Military Academy, and headed its alumni association. He never pushed me into military service, but he was very happy that I made the choice to continue the family tradition,” he says.
With astronaut dreams, he landed a spot at the Air Force Academy, only to be dismayed both by his electrical engineering classes and the realization that he did not have the requisite perfect pilot’s vision. Dinh switched to Asian Studies, and because the military academies reward their elite enrollees with higher military ranks, entered the Air Force as a commissioned officer. He calls the armed forces a pure meritocracy, and not a place where he felt handicapped by being Asian.
For six months from 2004 to 2005, Dinh was embedded with Iraqi soldiers, training personnel and ensuring timely exchange of information between the Coalition and Iraqi military headquarters. He had to prove himself a good deal, as the hardened, chain-smoking Iraqi officers, some who had survived torture under Saddam Hussein’s regime, initially wrote him off as a bespectacled rookie soldier from the Philippine army. But once the misconceptions were broken, they spoke to him with respect, and they even found common ground in learning about each others’ cultures. “We had many long, fascinating conversations,” he says.
While Dinh initially opposed the invasion of Iraq, he has come to realize that the U.S. has a role to play now. “What I believe is that abandoning the Iraqis would be morally irresponsible. We Vietnamese-Americans know this more than anyone. If America withdrew too suddenly, the humanitarian catastrophe would be unthinkable, not to mention igniting chaos in the region.”
On modernizing Iraq, Dinh says, “I agree that true liberal democracy cannot be pushed down anyone’s throats. However, I would say that the Islamic world and Arab culture have got to really find a way to reconcile themselves with modernity and global norms.”
“I think it is condescending to believe that non-Western cultures are incapable of developing enlightened, accountable forms of governance. In fact, the bickering and accusation... in the old South Vietnam mirrors that in Baghdad now. Still, this doesn’t mean that Vietnamese or Iraqis should abandon the pursuit of democracy.”
Having left the military, Dinh hopes to pursue an MBA and eventually contribute to Vietnam’s economic and social development.
A generation separates these men from the fall of Saigon. Yet in their actions and words, they demonstrate the legacy that the Vietnam War has left the Vietnamese-American people; a responsibility to the innocent victims of political conflict and to their own culture. Wearing the emblems of the United States, they have exemplified the ideals of this country. (Nam Yết chuyển) |
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4 comments:
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11/18/2012
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best regardes
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