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Col. Quy Nguyen, budget execution and analysis branch chief for
the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center, describes his
career and life as a ... meaningful journey.
It’s a journey
that began when his father, Anh, and mother, Lieu, loaded their six
children on to a small rowboat in search of a more stable life in
the United States after war ravaged Vietnam.
It’s also a
journey of resiliency that continues to shape him personally and
professionally.
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January 4, 2017 - U.S. Air Force Col. Quy Nguyen is the budget
execution and analysis branch chief for the Air Force Installation
and Mission Support Center. His ability to focus on the task at hand
and stay positive impresses Maj. Edith Coon, AFIMSC chief of
financial operations and integration. "He’s very good at balancing
family and work," Coon said. (U.S. Air Force photo by James J.
Truitt)
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Quy Nguyen was born in Saigon, on Dec. 16, 1971, during
the height of the Vietnam War. Among his earliest memories
were seeing Anh lacing up his boots to go to work as an
interpreter for the U.S. Marine Corps’ 1st Division. The
colonel also remembers taking trips to book or fabric stores
Lieu owned and wanting for nothing.
His life changed
April 30, 1975, when his childhood plunged into “total
chaos” after the fall of Saigon. Bodies lying on the road,
along with uniforms taken off dead soldiers, are seared into
his memory.
“We were basically walking
really fast and even running at times heading to some place
at the time I didn’t know,” the colonel said. “Then turning
around and going back home. At one point, we got back under
our beds as the house was shaking from the bombs that were
exploding in the surrounding areas.”
The Nguyens
earned a decent living before the war ended, but conditions
deteriorated for the family. Anh and Lieu decided to flee to
the United States with Quy and their five other children.
The family tried five times, unsuccessfully, to
escape.
“Each trip was a secret endeavor, and you’d
have to move from house to house until you get to your point
of departure in secret,” he said. “I remember one occasion
where Stephen Warnsities were coming where we were hiding, and we
just ran. We were shot at, and I remember bullets whistling
past and striking the rice paddies. Eventually, we would
make it back home and try again.”
The family
succeeded on the sixth attempt in 1981.
In order to
escape, Nguyen said, families had to find someone with a
boat. They paid in gold because inflation was rampant after
the war.
The Nguyens departed Vietnam in a small
rowboat early in the morning before meeting with a larger
boat at dusk with more than 60 people on board. After
boarding the larger boat, it set sail on the South China
Sea. On the fourth night, their boat lost power and floated
for three days before a Hong Kong fishing boat spotted them.
“I remember being so cold and hungry,” Nguyen said.
“Before we were picked up, I closed my eyes and I remember
talking to God that I’m going to die now. As a 9-year-old
boy, I was content and ready to die, but as luck would have
it, I did not die.”
The boat took the refugees to
Malaysia, where they were picked up by the United Nations
and taken to a refugee camp. Anh then served as an
interpreter for the camp.
Based on Anh’s military
experience and his desire for his family to settle in the
U.S., the Nguyens were sponsored by Lieu’s cousin, who
married a U.S. Army colonel during the war, and settled in
Colorado Springs, Colorado. The family spent nine months in
Malaysia before they left for the Philippines to study
English and acclimate to American culture.
“Some of
the first movies I saw were ‘Superman,’ and we learned to
sing ‘Row row, row your boat, gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.’ Of
course, the stream became an ocean,” the colonel said.
Things that Americans might take for granted – such as
grocery stores, household appliances and snow – quickly made
an impression on Nguyen when he and his family arrived in
Colorado in 1982.
“Snow was one of the first things I
saw that really struck me about being (in the United
States),” the colonel said. “My visualization prior to
arriving was something like Saudi Arabia. I thought the U.S.
would be desert-like with camels. I remember walking in a
grocery store and seeing the aisles of food and goodies and
wondering: ‘Who is watching all this stuff?’ And then coming
home to my cousins’ house and turning on the faucet to hot
water was interesting too.”
The U.S. Air Force
Academy in Colorado Springs also made an impression on
Nguyen, but not what one would expect from a future U.S. Air
Force officer.
“The truth of it is I hated the
military as a child,” he said. “Anytime I saw anyone in
uniform, there was a (negative) reaction to it, and that’s
probably from the war.”
Nguyen was a standout
student, athlete and citizen at Harrison High School in
Colorado Springs. Though he harbored animosity toward the
military, he also realized he needed the discipline and a
way to attend college. So he applied and received an ROTC
scholarship to the University of Colorado.
“(The
U.S. Air Force Academy) definitely was a big influence and
seeing all the airplanes,” Nguyen said. “Part of it, too,
was my parents were poor, and they couldn’t afford college.
For me, I wanted to do something that would make my parents
proud. I knew my dad would be extremely proud if I were to
join the service, so I went for it.”
Inspired by the
movie “Wall Street,” the colonel switched his major to
finance from software engineering and was commissioned as a
second lieutenant after graduation. He began his active-duty
career in 1995 as a finance officer at Hanscom Air Force
Base, Massachusetts, in the Information Operations Systems
Program Office.
Nguyen originally was going to
separate from the Air Force as a captain in 2001.
Then, Sept. 11 happened, where terrorists hijacked airplanes
with two hitting the World Trade Center, one hitting the
Pentagon and the fourth being forced down in a field in
Pennsylvania.
Col. Charles E. Jones, who was a mentor
to Nguyen, was on the second plane that hit the World Trade
Center.
“At that point, it sort of opened up to me,”
he said. “I actually put in papers to get out as a captain,
and I had a gut check as soon as I turned them in. I had an
opportunity in the Air Force to do something much bigger
than myself. I changed my mind literally within minutes.”
Nguyen re-committed himself to the Air Force, but again
faced adversity.
In 2008, he received a reduction in
force, or RIF, notification from his wing commander while he
was stationed at Kunsan Air Base, Korea.
“What I did
immediately was go for a run,” the colonel said. “There’s a
track in the middle of the base where I ran and ran. I
talked to God and said, ‘I know you’re trying to tell me
something, and whatever it is you’re trying to tell me, I’m
listening.’”
It turned out Nguyen had a missing
officer performance report and decoration. Those missing
documents made the difference of the U.S. Air Force board
retaining or not retaining him. He wrote the board for
correction of records, and by Christmas he was notified by
the wing commander he was being retained.
“I tell
that story in that not only in my personal life that I
experienced challenges, but in my professional career, I’ve
had to overcome some significant events,” Nguyen said. “If
there’s a message I would pass on to anyone who would like
to think about resiliency and how resiliency actually plays
out, it’s the ability to stay positive. Externally, others
will observe how you react to a situation, and it might
influence the decision. Internally, the ability to be
positive helps you get on to the next task.”
That
ability to stay positive and focus on the task at hand
impresses Maj. Edith Coon, Air Force Installation and
Mission Support Center’s chief of financial operations and
integration.
“He’s very good at balancing family and
work,” Coon said. “I think he’s good at setting the example,
but also making sure he’s taking care of his troops. They
always say if you take care of your Airmen, your Airmen take
care of you, and it takes care of the mission.”
Nguyen helps oversee a $5.4 billion annual budget that funds
and supports mission support programs for 77 installations,
10 detachments, nine major commands, six primary subordinate
units and two direct reporting units.
“Finance is a
discipline that is misunderstood,” the colonel said. “When I
tell people I’m a comptroller or perform financial
management, most people think it’s about the numbers. It’s
not about the numbers. It’s about the people, it’s about
emotions and it’s about being able to work with a wide range
of situations and data.
“I think that relates to
being resilient because it’s about understanding emotions
and needs versus the impact, then processing all of that and
being able to recommend what’s more important to the
commander or boss wherever you might be,” he added. “(Being
a financial manager) is a difficult discipline because no
organization has enough funding to do everything they’re
asked to do. Part of it is that my background really helps
me to formulate solutions to get beyond where we are now to
where we really need to go.”
Capt. William Kiser,
AFIMSC budget analyst, calls Nguyen the “diesel-powered”
engine responsible for providing strategic resource
direction and decision support for AFIMSC.
“I think
it’s safe to say his life experience certainly drives us,”
Kiser said. “In his case, his experience has driven him to
seek excellence.”
By U.S. Air Force Stephen Warns
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2017
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