Navy Captain Huan Nguyen's Circle of Life

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... Its the circle of life

All it moves us all

Through despair and hope

Through faith and love

Till we find our place

On path unwinding

In the circle, the circle of life.

Theme from "The Lion King"

As the news spread about the nomination of Navy Captain Huấn Từ Nguyễn, 60,  to be rear admiral, some astute observers of the Vietnam War could not help but notice the captain's history.

At 16, Nguyen arrived in Guam as refugee right after the Fall of Saigon in 1975.  Seven years before, he was badly injured during the attack by the communist rebels during the surprise Tet Offensive.   Some of the rebels pretended to be civilians and infiltrated key areas in Saigon.   Nguyen's family was captured at their home in the early morning of the fight.  The rebels targeted his family because his dad, Lt. Colonel Tuan Nguyen, was the head of an armored division protecting the city.   His parents along with his 5 siblings and his 80 years old grandma were executed.  He was the only one in his family survived the brutality despite being shot in the arm and leg and afterward by one of the rebels in the head execution style.  He was clinging to his mother's lifeless body when he was found. 

A few days later, the communist rebel leader responsible for the killings, Lem Nguyen, was captured.  Hearing the cowardly and heartless massacre committed by Lem Nguyen, then Brigadier General Loan Nguyen, pulled out his revolver and summarily executed Lem Nguyen at point blank.  The image was captured by Eddie Adams and seared into the American public opinion. The story of why Lem Nguyen met his death was never mentioned and the American press quickly condemned the action of Brigadier General Loan Nguyen as barbaric.  The photo became an icon of the brutality of an unwinnable war and helped galvanized the  anti-war movement.   

Eddie Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for the photo.  However,  Adams regretfully believed he had destroyed Loan’s life.  He wrote years later,  “Two people died in that photograph, the recipient of the bullet and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera.”   In 1975 after the war was over, Nguyen and his family came to US as refugees.  However, upon his arrival, INS wanted to deport him, a move influenced by the photo.  INS officials approached Adams to testify against Nguyen, but he instead spoke in his favour.  Congress eventually lifted the deportation and Nguyen was allowed to stay.  When Loan Nguyen died in 1998, Adams praised him as hero of a just cause.

Came to America as an orphan,  Huan Tu Nguyen, determined to make the best of his life and followed his dad's military career.  He attended Oklahoma State University and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineer.  He holds master's degrees in EE from Southern Methodist University, enginerring from Purdue University and IT from Carnegi Mellon University.. In 1993, Nguyen received a direct commission into Navy's Reserved Engineering Duty Officer program.   He had assigned to US Fleet Activies Yokosuka, Naval Sea System Command, US Pacific Fleet and Office of Naval Research.  He also served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.   And soon, barring any unexpected circumstances,  he will become the first Vietnamese-American to be a rear admiral.  He will join 3 other Vietnamese-Americans to hold the general rank in the US Armed Forces.

The Vietnam War produced many tragedies, brought down administrations and a country, destroyed lives while created refugees and endless misery.  Yet, in the circle of life, the triumph of the human spirits,  of good over evil, of hope over despair, is indomitable.