Vietnam War Refugee Tells Of His Journey 50-Years Later, To Find The Father He Thought Died In Battle, On "Brad Show Live"
Despite Hugh's knowledgeable position, serving 3.3 million residents, for 50-years of his life, he did not know who his own father was.
NEW YORK, May 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --Â Hugh Nguyen safeguards millions of records, including marriage, birth and death certificates, as the county clerk recorder for Orange County, CA. Despite Hugh's knowledgeable position, serving 3.3 million residents, for 50-years of his life, he did not know who his own father was.
Hugh is one of the estimated 25,000 Amerasians that were born to American soldiers during the Vietnam War. His South Vietnamese mother told Hugh that his father died in combat. Raised by his aunts and grandparents, Hugh and his relatives escaped the war torn country when he was just 7-years-old.
"I heard a lot of shooting," Hugh recalled of leaving Vietnam in an interview on Brad Show Live. "Soldiers were bleeding; injured... I slept on the concrete floor [of the airport]. It was scary. We didn't know if we were going to leave our country because we were stuck at the airport."
The next day, helicopters arrived to transport almost 4,000 refugees to the USS Midway. The Naval aircraft carrier went to the Philippines and Guam before docking at Camp Pendleton in San Diego.
For two months, Hugh and his family stayed at Camp Pendleton before being sponsored by a church in El Centro, CA.
"My two aunts picked up odds jobs from working at a motel to sewing," Hugh described of his childhood in America. "We were the first Vietnamese family to come to El Centro, CA."
Five decades later, Hugh has a family of his own and is the first Vietnamese-American County Clerk Recorder in the nation. Despite his accomplishments, a void in his life remained: his father. Nearing his fiftieth birthday, Hugh turned to ancestry.com to see what he could find. Although he faced setbacks in the process, Hugh eventually located and connected with his Tennessee-born American soldier father, Roy Patterson.
"After 50 years to find my Dad, and he is still alive, is an amazing feeling," Hugh said of reuniting with his long lost father. Since their meeting, Hugh has met his half-siblings and extended family.
Catch the full interview on YouTube and Facebook with host Brad Bernstein! Brad Show Live is a 2019 webby honoree that airs Monday-Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET!
https://www.facebook.com/SparBernstein/
https://www.youtube.com/user/sparandbernstein/featuredÂ
Contact: Jill Gould, [email protected]
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SOURCE Brad Show Live
