Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
"I'm just a simple citizen," said the American Legion's' Memorial Day guest speaker.
Loi "Thomas" Truong, 54, will talk about what freedom means to him in Warsaw's Oakwood Cemetery at the Legion Circle on Monday.
The American Legion Post 49 will conduct Memorial Day services at the Kosciusko County War Memorial and Oakwood Cemetery. The Kosciusko Co. War Memorial ceremony starts Monday at 9:30 a.m. and the Oakwood Cemetery service begins at 11 a.m.
"I have experience of when I did not have freedom, when all freedom was taken away by the communists," he said.
Truong fled Vietnam in 1979 in a desperate gamble to escape the horrendous conditions in his country and to make a better life for his family. Leaving behind his wife and three children, he didn't see them again for 10 years.
When the Republic of Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam, all South Vietnamese military veterans and their families were in peril. Truong served in the South Vietnam Navy for five years as an electronic technician.
Unable to find regular work in Saigon, the Truongs made their way to Loi's parent's house in Vung Tau, a town 18 miles south of Saigon.
His saga is detailed in the booklet, "Our Brothers: The Enemy." It tells of unannounced police visits and punishments if meat was included in a meal. Books were removed from everyone's homes. No one could listen to music. There was no free press.
He reported to a "work" camp leaving Kim to wonder, for months, whether he was dead or alive.
"When I was in my country, because I fought the new government, my children were not able to go to high school. There was no future for the children. They kept an eye on me. I didn't have the freedom to go from one place to another," he said.
"Over there, when you traveled, you had to have a stamp from an official in your town, someone in the other town stamped your papers when you arrived, again when you left and stamped again when you got back to your town.
"We had to stand in line for hours to receive coupons to get food, sugar, material for clothing or gasoline."
He and a friend spent five days at sea on a boat where there was no food for the escaping passengers. He arrived at an Indonesian island with other refugees penniless, shoeless and starving.
He was eventually sponsored by Agi and Denes Bardos of Warsaw, through Catholic Charities of Fort Wayne.
Once here he worked tirelessly to bring his family to this country.
The effort took 10 years. In the meantime he sent care packages of medicine, blue jeans his wife could sell on the "black" market and embroidery floss she could use in her work.
He took the American name of Thomas.
"When I came here I saw my sponsor's daughter graduate in a cap and gown. I asked, 'How can I be like that?' I wanted to learn and to speak better English" he said.
In Vietnam he studied English for a year and could read and write it. He also spoke French and Chinese.
At age 28, he enrolled as a Warsaw Community High School student and graduated with the class of 1982, as a 30-year-old.
He became a U.S. citizen in 1985.
"I wanted to become a citizen so I'm able to sponsor my mother and brother. I had to learn about the government, the Constitution and to know the name of the elected people, senators and congressmen.
"I read more books than they asked. I want to get citizenship desperately, get as much information that I need."
He also purchased land and built a house, mostly with his own hands, in anticipation of his family's arrival.
It was a happy reunion when Kim and the three children, Tuan, Tu and Ahn, finally arrived in the United States in July 1989. In 1990 the Truongs had twin boys, Michael and Jessen, now WCHS freshmen.
Truong has been a Zimmer employee for 26 years. His oldest son, Thomas Jr., is a Purdue University graduate, serves in the U.S. Air Force and recently married a Vietnamese woman. His middle son, Peter, works at RR Donnelley. His daughter, Marie, is a fifth grade teacher in the Carmel School District. She is expecting the Truongs first grandchild in November.
