This may be the most American story you will read today: In 1968, South Vietnamese Lt. Col. Nguyen Tuan was murdered along with his wife, mother, and six of his children. One of his children survived, however, after being shot through the arm and thigh. Another bullet pierced his skull. Nine-year-old Huan Nguyen stayed next to his mother for two hours after the murders.
When night fell, he escaped the scene and avoided the communist guerrillas. The young boy was taken in by his uncle, a colonel in the South Vietnamese Air Force. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, the officer and Nguyen escaped to the United States.
In October 2019, Huan Nguyen was promoted to rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.