Embodying the American Spirit, honoring Asian Heritage

Photo By Randall Couch | U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Tom Nguyen, 660th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron...... read more read more

Photo By Randall Couch | U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Tom Nguyen, 660th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron maintenance expediter, left, and Senior Airman Sawako Nguyen, 60th Health Care Operations Squadron gastroenterology technician, right, pose for a family photo with their sons at Travis Air Force Base, April 27, 2024. May is designated as Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month when we recognize the continuing accomplishments of Asians and Pacific Islanders to our country. (U.S. Air Force photo by Randall Couch)  see less | View Image Page

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, CA, UNITED STATES

05.01.2024

Story by Randall Couch 

60th Air Mobility Wing

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TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – May was first designated as Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by President George H.W. Bush in 1992. May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843 and to observe the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants. The month gives us the opportunity to celebrate the many diverse cultures of Asian Americans and shine a light on their contributions to our country.

U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Tom Nguyen, 660th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron expediter and his wife Senior Airman Sawako Nguyen, 60th Health Care Operations Squadron gastroenterology technician, provide a good example of Asian Americans making lasting contributions while still keeping their unique heritage.

It was April 28, 1975 and Saigon was about to fall. Tom Nguyen’s uncle, Tam Do Nguyen, was a South Vietnamese naval officer and had worked with and fought alongside the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet from 1972 to 1975. On this day, the Navy gave him a difficult decision to make…stay in Vietnam with his family or get on a ship and go to America. Even though it would mean leaving the only country he had ever known and heading off into an unknowable future, Tam Do boarded that ship and changed his family’s future forever.

Saigon fell to communist forces two days later on April 30, 1975. Tam Do ended up settling in Corona, California. He saved every penny he made and eventually bought a house. He married and had two children but he kept saving and, in December of 1993, he brought 17 members of his family from Vietnam to the United States. Tom was four years old and he and his parents were among those 17 relatives.

Now there were 21 people living in Tan Do’s house. “They all concentrated on getting jobs, learning English, and getting the children into school” says Tom. “They saved their money and bought another house. The 17 of us that Tam Do brought over moved into that house.” Tom remembers that “Everyone continued to focus on assimilating themselves into American culture and eventually, one-by-one, they bought their own homes or found new jobs and moved out, each going their separate ways but remaining close as a family.”

Tom gained U.S. citizenship when he was 16 years old. He graduated from high school and attended college for two years. He then got a job as a high school tennis and cross-country coach. Tom had a cousin, Johnny Do Nguyen, who he greatly admired for his exploits in Iraq as an Army Ranger. Tom says “I was impressed with all of the ‘cool’ things he had done.” Tom decided he wanted to follow in his cousin’s footsteps and went to see the Army recruiter. He recalls, “When my cousin heard about this he gave me an ultimatum…go to the Army recruiter and tell him you’re not joining the Army, then go next door to the Air Force recruiter and sign up with them or I’m going to beat up both you and your Army recruiter!”

Tom enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 2011 and became an aircraft maintenance technician. “I joined with the idea of giving something back to the country that has become my home and allowed me the opportunity to live without communist rule.” said Tom. After completing basic training and technical school, Tom was sent to Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, where he worked on E-3 Sentry and RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft and, later, was assigned to Kadena Air Base, Japan.

Here he met Sawako Hanashiro, a native of Okinawa, who was home on summer break after attending college in Shizuoka, on mainland Japan. They eventually married and had their first son on Okinawa in 2018. The couple was later transferred to Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington.

Here they had their second son and Sawako was a stay-at-home mom for a while. When she decided to go to work, she found it difficult finding meaningful jobs as a resident alien. She decided to join the U.S. Air Force because, as she put it, “You have no credit history and no work history so it was hard to find jobs that I could turn into any kind of a successful career. I ended up doing nails for about a year.” After Basic Military Training Sawako became an Aerospace Medical Technician and the family was transferred to Travis Air Force Base, California.

She has now been in the Air Force for over two years and serves as a gastroenterology technician at David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, California. It’s very difficult to imagine she is not a native English speaker except for the very occasional moments when she subtly pronounces a word with a slight Australian accent, a phenomenon she attributes to some of her early English teachers.

This journey from Japanese college student in Okinawa to mom and U.S. Air Force medical technician in California presented plenty of challenges but Sawako was not finished yet. The U.S. State Department rates Japanese as one of the top 5 most difficult languages to learn, the other four being Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Arabic. Because Sawako is a native Japanese speaker and speaks English with native proficiency, her language skills are in demand. “I took the Defense Language Proficiency Test for Japanese. That has brought me opportunities to perform duties as an interpreter, mostly for joint exercises.” said Sawako. She adds “I have been sent to Guam twice as an interpreter for Cope North, a trilateral exercise involving the U.S., Australia and Japan.” She may get the opportunity again this year to provide translation services for the Cope North planning meeting in Japan.

The Nguyens try to maintain elements of their native cultures at home pass these on to their children. They stay in contact with relatives both in Japan and Vietnam and occasionally visit. Sawako teaches the children Japanese. Tom notes that “Our first son seemed to be a little late to start talking. A doctor explained to us that my mom, who was living with us at the time, was speaking to him in Vietnamese, my wife was speaking to him in Japanese, and I was speaking to him in English.” “He’s just confused.” said the doctor. “He’ll be okay.”

While they seek to maintain their diverse Asian cultural heritage, the Nguyen’s truly embody the American spirit and never stop striving to better their situation. Sawako was recently promoted to Senior Airman Below the Zone. Tom says of his wife, “She’s just killing it!” Sawako also recently applied for her U.S. citizenship. Tom is currently a flightline maintenance expediter on the new KC-46A Pegasus aircraft and recently applied to become a First Sergeant. “My passion is helping people.” he says. “As an expediter I try to get to know my maintainers…get to know what motivates them and try to help them. Becoming a First Sergeant will only give me more opportunities to help others.”

Tom and Sawako’s efforts display both the spirit of Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and the American spirit every day of the year.