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FORT HOOD, Texas - “I never looked at my story as amazing; it's
just how I grew up. This story isn't about me; this story speaks to
the greatness of American men and women, who willingly laid down
their life to free complete strangers,” said Chief Master Sgt. Phuoc
Phan, the chief enlisted officer for the 3rd Weather Squadron, 3rd
Air Support Operations Group.
Phan spoke during Air Force
Heritage Day Oct. 3, 2014 at the 9th Air Support Operations Squadron
Building at Fort Hood. The event commemorated the living history of
the U.S. Air Force with two very different perspectives on the
Vietnam War.
“I'm no hero; the real hero is right there,”
Phan said, as he pointed to retired Air Force Maj. Rick Bates, a
Vietnam prisoner of war. Bates was also a guest speaker at the
heritage day. “I owe my freedom to men like Maj. Bates.”
During the Vietnam War, more than 58,000 Americans were killed and
more than 700 were held as POWs.
Phan began his story as an
8-year-old boy fleeing to safety with his family in war-torn
Vietnam.
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Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Phuoc Phan, the chief enlisted
officer for the 3rd Weather Squadron, 3rd Air Support Operations
Group, left, and retired Air Force Maj. Rick Bates, a Vietnam
prisoner of war, pose for pictures after Air Force Heritage Day Oct.
3, 2014 at the 9th Air Support Operations Squadron building on Fort
Hood. The event commemorated the living history of both men, who
were the guest speakers. Phan was a Vietnam refugee. (Photo by Army
Staff Sgt. Tomora Clark, 13th Public Affairs Detachment)
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“For me, it all started in Quang Nam, the republic of
South Vietnam, in 1975. I remember that my dad was gone a
lot and was never home because he was a naval officer. My
mother raised all seven of us kids,” Phan said, as he
recalled how his life was forever changed.
He
continued, “One day, after playing, my mother frantically
told me to ‘go find your brothers because the Viet Cong and
the North Vietnamese Army is on its way.'”
Phan said his mother packed as much as she could into
two large trash bags. It was then he realized she was
packing one bag full of clothes, and the other with whatever
food they could carry with them on their long journey south.
“We just started walking. But no matter how far we
walked, we could always hear the gunfire and explosions in
the background. When the sun came up, we walked and, when
the sun set, we slept. We didn't have hotels, motels or
tents ... we slept out in the open,” Phan said.
With
a slight smile that suddenly appeared on his face, he
mentioned, “Still to this day I'm not really a fan of
camping.” The Airmen, for the first time during his speech,
broke the silence and erupted in laughter thinking of how
much service members have to sleep in a field environment.
Phan kept telling his story to the Airmen as he
remembered things as an 8-year-old child.
“Day by
day, we continued our journey southward never having more
than a bowl of rice a day. I'm not sure how my mother kept
us fed during that time, but she did. We walked and walked
and walked ... as far as we could go until we got down to
Saigon.”
Saigon is currently named Ho Chi Minh City
and is the largest city in Vietnam. During the war, Saigon,
a capitalist and anti-communist state, was the capital of
the French colony of Cochinchina, and fought against
communist North Vietnam with the aid of the U.S. and other
countries. But, on April 30, 1975, Saigon fell to communist
victory of the Viet Cong and North Vietnam.
“I'm not
sure of how long it took us to get there,” Phan said, with a
quizzical look that caused his forehead to wrinkle and his
eyes to squint off into a distance.
The distance
between Quang Nam and Saigon is 343.85 miles if traveled in
a straight line.
Once in Saigon, his mother told him
and his siblings to stay in a certain area, she'd be right
back. Upon his mother's return, he noticed his father was
with her.
“This was 1975. There was no social media
and no cellphones,” Phan paused, to reiterate the difference
in time when communication wasn't so easily accessible. “We
were back together as a family, but we had no home; we had
no country. My parents knew the war was lost and they
decided to flee the country.”
If caught by the Viet
Cong, Phan's father would have attended a re-education camp
as many other former South Vietnamese soldiers did, as this
was a common practice of the Viet Cong.
“My dad
somehow got us on a landing craft,” Phan revealed.
A
landing craft is a boat used for an amphibious assault going
from sea to shore. The most common design had a flat front
with a ramp. The assault vessels are most famous from
landings during World War II to storm the beaches of
Normandy.
“I really don't know how long we were out
there adrift, but a U.S. naval ship picked us up. We went
from one refugee camp to another. We had safety, food,
shelter and hope for the future,” said Phan. “Yes, I was a
refugee, but it was better than what I had.”
After
various refugee camps, Phan and his family boarded a plane
heading to the U.S. They were headed for a refugee camp at
Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. Fort Chaffee was a primary housing
and processing center for southeastern Asian refugees. The
fort processed more than 50,800 refugees during the Vietnam
War giving them the tools needed to assimilate into the U.S.
“Rows and rows of white barracks is where they housed us
refugees,” recalled Phan. “Our barracks had indoor showers,
something I wasn't used to growing up in Vietnam and was
also next to the chow hall which made life easier.”
Phan took a pregnant pause and said, “When I think back to
those days, I remember how I loved Army chow and now ... not
so much.” Yet again, the Airmen broke the silence and
erupted in laughter.
Phan and his family left Fort
Chaffee and were sponsored by an American family to work on
their farm for two years. After the two years at the farm
was up, they moved to Barling, Arkansas, for a short period
of time. They finally settled into Pocola, Oklahoma, where
Phan spent the remainder of his childhood and enlisted into
the Air Force.
“After graduating from high school, I
went to college for a little while. That didn't work out, so
I decided I needed to do something. I then joined the Air
Force in 1988 to get away from small town America and
receive a steady pay check,” Phan said.
Although Phan
initially entered the Air Force to receive a steady pay
check, he got much, much more out of it after his first
enlistment. He gained his citizenship in 1991, which he said
was one of the proudest days of his life. Phan has served as
an Airman for 26 years.
As Phan ended his speech he
made his last remarks about his journey, “This is my story;
it's not a story about me. It's a story about the goodness
of people who've made the ultimate sacrifice for complete
strangers. It's a story about men like Maj. Bates and what
he had to endure, so that I can be free. I will never forget
their sacrifices. And that is the reason I continue to
serve.”
The Airmen in the audience stood and
applauded Phan's amazing story.
Capt. Danele Elliott,
assistant director of operation for 3rd Weather Squadron,
3rd Air Support Operations Group, said, “I was astonished
with Chief Phan's story. I'm amazed with all that he has
overcome to be so successful today.”
Elliott has
worked with Phan for over a year and never quite heard the
intricate details of his journey.
After the applause
slowly died down, Phan began to speak again with
tear-drenched, redden eyes.
“This is a little
off-script,” he said as he looked directly at Bates, who was
sitting in the front row next to Phan's wife, Sharri.
“Without your story, I have no story.”
“I have one
more thing I would like to do,” he said as he left the
lectern to a standing ovation and walked toward the retired
Air Force major, who spoke only minutes before Phan.
Phan stopped approximately 5 feet before Bates and rendered
a hand salute in a gesture of honor to thank him for all
that he did and all that he sacrificed. After rendering in a
hand salute, the two men from very different perspectives of
the Vietnam War embraced in a hug.
“I think this is a
heritage day that will always be remembered,” said Elliott.
By U.S. Army Sgt. Tomora Clark
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2014
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