Remembering the fallen

Lt. Col. Hien Nguyen speaks during the Memorial Day Service held at the Veteran's Building in Bowling Green City Park. (Photo: Shane Hughes/Sentinel-Tribune)

When Lt. Col. Hien Nguyen thanked local veterans on Memorial Day, he spoke of being grateful for more than his freedom. He owed them his life.
Nguyen, who commands the Air Force ROTC program at Bowling Green State University, was born in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1970. As a child, he witnessed burning buildings, charred cars throughout the city and "burning bodies in the streets." PHOTO BLOG
Since his father was in the South Vietnamese Army, the family was forced to flee the country in 1975 when Saigon fell to Communist North Vietnam. Nguyen, then 5, and his family escaped with many other refugees on a shrimp boat. They were rescued by American sailors and taken to the Philippines, then to the U.S. After spending some time in a refugee camp in Arkansas, his family made its home in Oklahoma.