Biography

In 1971, America began to withdraw her forces out of Vietnam per the so-called Paris Peace Talk Agreement. Thus created a big shortage of English Instructors. The Training Center Command ordered all able Viet English speaking officers to report back to the Vietnamese Armed Forces Language School for an English Instructor qualification test. I passed the test and was sent to the Defense Language School (DLI), Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas, for more English Training and qualifications. After seven months of continual training in grammar, and phonology, I passed all the required tests and returned to Vietnam officially as an English Instructor for the Vietnamese Armed Forces Language School.

In 1972, I returned to DLI for a three-month refresher course. While I was there, the NVA openly crossed the DMZ to attack South Vietnam. The ARVN was able to stop and countered the attack thanks to the help of the U.S Armed Forces.

Later in 1972, the Vietnamese Chief, (Chairman) Joint Generals Staff, General Cao Van Vien, selected me to be his personal Aide-de-Camp. I would never in my life believe that I was selected by the highest-ranking General of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) to be his personal aide. In that capacity, I had opportunities to travel with the General around the world and many times in and out of the Pentagon meeting with the Top Five. I was able to shake hands with top tier U.S. Generals: Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Moorer; Army Chief of Staff, General Abrams; Air Force Chief of Staff, General Brown; Chief of the Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Zummwalt and Commandant of the Marines Corp. General Robert Cushman. These were all top U.S. Generals or Admirals during the Vietnam era, they all held top positions at the Pentagon when they returned to the U.S. and they were all close friends with my boss.

I found out the reason I was selected to be the Viet Chairman's aide: because I was French educated, and more importantly, I was an OCS graduate, and I language skills in English and French.

The war continued on and the ARVN took on more responsibility because of the gradual withdrawal of the U.S. and Allied Forces (Koreans, Australians/New Zealanders, Thais and the Philippines). The dangerous thing was that we were running very low on supplies (i.e., ammo, fuel, weapons, most important is ammo and fuel).

In June of 1974, my boss received a Congressional fact-finding group from both Houses at his HQ in Saigon, and I was the briefing officer. We were asking for $400M in military and economic aid to sustain the war; however, the request has never been discussed nor debated on the floor of the U.S. Congress and the ARVN is running out of ammo, fuel.

On the last days of April 1975, the President of the Republic, President Tran Van Huong, approved the resignation of my boss and General Vien left Vietnam on the 27th of April 1975. Those days, 13 NVA Regular Army Divisions (130K troops, thousands of tanks, and pieces of artillery) surrounded the city Saigon. I left Saigon 24 hours before the Communists took over my beloved city and country. At 10:30 AM on the 30th of April, the last president of the Republic, Duong Van Minh, ordered to whatever is left of the ARVN to drop their weapons and unconditionally surrender to the Communist North. Five South Vietnamese Generals committed suicide instead of surrendering. I was on a South Korea's LST leaving for the South China Sea. Finally arrived at the Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines after floating for five days on South China Sea. The head of the U.S. Customs/Navy Teams found out that I was an OCS graduate so he enlisted my help for two hours before he was put on the first flight out to Guam for INS Processing to the mainland.

Other jobs and moves I have made include: May of 1975, arrived at the Fort Chaffee Refugee Camp in Fort Smith, Arkansas; July of 1975, my first job was with Gerber Baby Food in Fort Smith, Arkansas; September of 1979, laid off by Gerber, moved family to Dallas, Texas; October of 1979 - June 2014, worked for a series of telecommunications companies in different management positions; 1993, earned my BS in Engineering Management at Amberton University, in Texas; 1998, earned my MS in Human Relations and Business at Amberton University, in Texas; June 2014, Alcatel-Lucent Telecom let me go after serving the company for 32 years, 6 months and 19 days, and I was forced into retirement.

Finally I was able to hook up with other Vietnamese OCS graduates of the 5th OC Bn. in Orange County, California, and with the help of Colonel (Ret.) Thomas Evans (Ranger Leads the Way), we were able to set up the first Vietnamese Americans OCS Chapter in Orange County. Back

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