Engage in a Video Conference with Someone Who Lived During the Vietnam War

For this extra credit assignment, you will need to engage in a video conference with someone who lived during the Vietnam War. Certainly, this could be a soldiar, but it could also be someone who didn't serve in the armed forces. 

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Natalie Lortz's Video Conference with Miki Nyguen

My name is Natalie Lortz and on April 27, 2016, at approximately 11:30 AM, I used the Zoom.com video conferencing technology to interview a man by the name of Miki Nguyen. Miki's father was among several pilots in the South Vietnamese Air Force who commandeered helicopters to transport their loved ones to safety during the U.S. Embassy evacuation at the end of the Vietnam War. Flying over the Pacific, his helicopter low on fuel, Nguyen’s father spotted a ship. But the Chinook that he flew was too big and heavy to land safely on its deck, so he hovered over the ship as his passengers jumped into the arms of the crew. Nguyen’s father managed to get himself off the helicopter before intentionally crashing it into the water.

Video clip (1:57) which tells story of the father's heroic helicopter flight

The video conference interview started off with me welcoming Miki to the class and then letting him know how honored we were that he was willing to talk to us and how much we appreciated the fact that he was willing to talk to us at 1:30 in the morning, his time.

Then I gave Miki a chance to tell his story via a slide show. That lasted about 25 minutes and went EXTREMELY well. He did a fabulous job of connecting with the kids, whether it was in terms of giving more detail to the helicopter story or his life in the US thereafter.

When the slide show had ended, I asked Miki a number of questions, with most of the asking him to go into more detail about his family's life here in the US.

One question I asked - what was the hardest part about growing up in the US? In response, he said it was watching his mother fret about taking the citizenship test, she so worried that she didn't know enough English to pass. 

In response to another question I asked, Miki told us about how his father first worked as a custodian for a local church.

I then shared with Miki my mom's story of coming to the United States, a story that my mom described in the her book Nam Moi: A Young Girls Story of Her Family's Escape from Vietnam http://www.amazon.com/Nam-Moi-Familys-Escape-Vietnam/dp/1508700796

I then asked him what was the best part about growing up in the United States, He said it was "all the great opportunities that this country has to offer for those who will not only work hard but will also work smart."

At one point during the video conference, I asked the class if anyone wanted to step forward and ask Miki some questions. Two did. One, a boy, told Miki that he would like to write a book on his family's experience in the Vietnam War. A girl who stepped forward, told Miki that her family had come over on the Mayflower and had been in San Marino from its very beginning. This girl then went on to say that she just couldn't imagine having to go to another courtly, starting all over, with only pennies. 

I close by asking some questions about Miki's siblings, what had become of them, for example? In response, Miki described how various siblings had become professors, doctors, etc.

In the end, he told us that he has lived his entire life in such a way as to never stress out his parents, if only to thank them for all their sacrifice and hard work.

Natalie Lortz and Miki Nguyen