In honor of World Refugee Day, the following is kindly shared from one of the American Civic Association’s esteemed community members, Thang Nguyen. Thang was first resettled to Binghamton as a refugee in 1975.
Thank you, Thang, for sharing your story with us!
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am a Vietnamese immigrant, who came to the US as a war refugee, as South Vietnam surrendered to the advancing North Vietnamese army in April 1975. At 15 years old, I escaped from harrowing bombing and gun battles, leaving Saigon on a chartered Korean ship with my older brother, pregnant aunt, uncle, and grandmother. Now, 46 years later, I am well adjusted and have become part of the fabric of America. When I arrived in Binghamton NY, I went to West Junior High School. A year later, I attended high school in San Jose California. A graduate from University of California Berkeley in 1983, I have been working in California as a technology professional. I would like to think that I am a model success story of an American immigrant. Ship-evacuated refugees left Saigon two days before the official end of the war. Blankets and sheets tied across the ship bow for shelters from the sun. The journey took 8 or 9 days to reach the Philippines
2. Can you share more with us about your experience coming to this area of Broome County?
It was in late spring, June 19th, 1975, that the ACA’s volunteers picked us up from our refugee camp in Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania and brought us to Binghamton for resettlement. We were deeply grateful for the reception and assistance from the volunteers of the ACA. There were also volunteers who taught us to cook American dishes and took us to our medical appointments. They taught us basic English once a week and registered me at West Junior High. Someone helped me with my first bus trip from downtown Binghamton to school the week before school started. Despite that, I remembered getting lost and missing buses several times during the first few days of school. It was scary and funny now that I’m thinking about it.
One special family who volunteered at the ACA bonded with us like family. The Youngs, Carl and Sil, and their small children Kirsten, David, and Michael, aged between eight and two, helped us assimilate to our new lives. They helped my uncle and brother find jobs, buy our first car, and they argued with the landlord on our behalf. They were generous with their time and loved us. We are forever grateful.
This is me (15) in the brown t-shirt. After 8-9 days with just enough water and dried rice for survival, we were elated by seeing land in the distance. Later, we learned this was the Philippines.
3. What do you like most about this area and Broome County in general?
Now that I have lived in several large cities in the US, I learned that Broome County was a relatively small place with low population density. However, at the time, we thought it was an ideal place for us to start our new lives. We had access to health care, education, jobs, and a helpful community.
July 2010 – Carl and Sil Young with their granddaughter Isabella when they met our family in San Francisco.
4. What challenges have you faced here?
The main challenge we faced was the harsh winter. We came from a tropical country, where it was either humid and hot or humid and rainy. Adjusting to the cold and the snow was really difficult. The second challenge was finding jobs that we fit in. My uncle was a pilot in the Vietnamese Air Force during the Vietnam War, and he flew helicopters in Texas as part of his military training. He decided to leave Binghamton after one year in pursuit of a warmer climate and a job as a pilot in Texas. I was a teenager, who didn’t have to earn a living. Thus, my challenges were more about learning English and getting good grades in school. Because of the language barrier, I didn’t make many friends at school either.
My grandmother and her youngest grandson, my cousin Quoc, made the Broome County newspaper for its decade-in-review. Credit Sil Young for this keep-sake.
5. What role, if any, has the American Civic Association played in your life since arriving here?
The ACA was central to the start of our new lives. Aside from the volunteers helping us with the daily necessities, it provided us with a central point where we would gather with other Vietnamese refugees to form a community of our own. It was where we organized our first Lunar New Year celebration away from our home land. It gave us a feeling of belonging and a sense of direction in a new country.
6. If you would like to, please share with us some of your favorite parts of Vietnam, Vietnamese culture, or any memories you would like to share with us.
After the end of the war in 1975, Vietnam was an isolated communist country throughout the following decade. Letters to and from my parents took several months, as they were routed to Japan or other intermediary countries during that period. But in early 1990, Vietnam’s relationship with the US normalized. Now it is a fantastic destination for Americans to visit for cultural, culinary, and scenic experiences. There is absolutely no trace of bitterness about the past war. The country is currently a vibrant and dynamic economy. Museums are the only places to see any evidence of the Viet-American war.
My family visited Vietnam in 2009. This is in Ninh Binh, the birthplace of our ancestors.
