Fireworks and Family: The Serendipitous Journey of Friendship, Refuge, and the American Dream. And Snoopy.

The 4th of July holiday always comes with a lot of feelings. Some of the most prevalent being those about my military father in the post I shared last week, but another pivotal part for me has been our chosen family. Allow me to share a story that has had a profound effect on our family, to this day.??

My dad was an aide to an Army General back in 1958 at Fort Benning, GA. He attended a lot of events with this General and many times, my mother was also in attendance. Because my dad would be tied up with work obligations, she found interest in getting to know foreign military officers that were also at these events. One such officer was a man by the name of Chung Nguyen-Duc, an officer with the South Vietnamese Army, who was studying in the US. My mom became friends with him first, and my dad soon followed.

Fast forward to the early 1970’s. My dad was in Vietnam on one of his two tours as part of the Army Corp of Engineers, building roads. He was at a function and someone called out his name. Chung also happened to be there and heard it… Jack Porter? John G. Porter? Yes! They had reunited in a serendipitous way. The friendship blossomed again, and they stayed in touch.

In Spring 1975, when Vietnam was falling, my parents got a hold of Chung to check on him and his family… by then he had a wife, 2 kids and his mother. My parents were concerned for their safety, and they offered to Sponsor them in the US. So on a very warm late June day, they arrived in Central WI. His wife, Tu, his children Chinh (6) and daughter Nha-Ai (4) and Chung’s mother, grandma Ba Noi (in her 80’s). Chung was still in Vietnam and made it out a few months later at the very end of the war by boat, barely avoiding capture by the North Vietnamese.?

I vividly remember picking them up at the Central Wisconsin airport… I was 8 years old. We brought gifts… a fire truck for Chinh and a stuffed Snoopy for Nha-Ai. Snoopy was important in our family, as my paternal grandparents lived in Santa Rosa, CA, where Charles Schulz resided.?

Our little family of 4 turned into a family of 9 overnight, with our new family members staying in our basement that my parents had turned into a little apartment. Tu and Chung spoke some English, and Tu was working with the International Rescue Committee as a translator. The kids and grandma spoke no English. There were lots of hand gestures, as my parents worked to get them settled in the US, and my brother and I added 2 new siblings who didn’t speak our language. They got jobs in WI and Chung went back to school to get his Finance Degree. The family moved to CA a year later to be closer to other family members that had settled in the US (and frankly to get away from the snowy WI winters!) But our family was changed forever, and they were now a part of it.

They are a true American success story. Chung went on to have a long career with Wells Fargo Bank. Tu opened a wholesale diamond dealership in San Francisco, which she also had done in Vietnam. Chinh became an amazing artist and graphic designer… talent he showed us from his very early days in the US when he would draw football tackles when watching games with my dad, at age 6. In astounding detail. Nha-Ai graduated from UC Davis, then the University of Chicago for Medical School and went on to do her Residency at Yale. She is now an Internist with the VA in San Francisco… working with veterans that helped in her native country so many years ago.?

We attended weddings of both of the kids in California, and they attended my brother’s and mine in the Midwest. Nha Ai and Tu made their way to WI when my dad passed away last year to attend his service, and Chinh drew the cover of the funeral program. They are still family, all these years later. When I was at Nha-Ai’s wedding… as I looked around the room at the nearly 200 people there that were family members and friends from the Vietnamese community, it struck me. What a gift my parents had given them back in 1975. To get them to America. And to help them live the American dream, which they are all doing so successfully. I was proud. Of them. Of my parents. Of our country for welcoming them here and allowing them to become successful.?

I gave Nha-Ai a Snoopy as part of her wedding gift. After she opened it, she told me… “You know that Snoopy you gave me when we first came to America? I still have it. It’s on my shelf in my bedroom, and I look at it every day.” That made me cry. It was just a stuffed Snoopy. But it signified so much more than that. When Nha-Ai had her son, my parents sent him a gigantic 3 foot tall Snoopy to cuddle with. It was now a “thing”.?

And another serendipitous thing? Nha-Ai’s birthday is the 4th of July. So appropriate. And Chung’s is on July 10. My birthday, too. So, to Chung Nguyen-Duc… who still lives in San Francisco and is now 89 years old – Happy Birthday! I’m so glad you are here.?

#Family #HappyBirthday #Snoopy #AmericanImmigrants #WendyPorterEvents