A Vietnamese Artillery Lieutenant On Service, Captivity, And Freedom

Bac Vu’s parents moved to Saigon from northern Vietnam prior to 1945 and he was born there in 1950. During the war, he was a student at Saigon University, but was drafted into the Army in 1972 and became an Artillery Lieutenant in the South Vietnamese Airborne Division. He trained in Nha Trang and served around Quang Tri. When US forces pulled out, he felt that he had to fight harder to resist the communists. In November, 1974, he was wounded. After the war ended on April 30, 1975, he spent over three years in jail. He described the hard work and constant hunger he experienced in the reeducation camp. He left Vietnam in 1991 and traveled to Thailand where he completed his paperwork to immigrate to the United States. He flew to Los Angeles and settled in Westminster, California, before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada. Coming from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the freedom and opportunity available in America impressed him. At the end of the interview, he expresses his pride in having served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.