Jennifer Nguyen fled communist Vietnam for the United States in 1975 with four kids, and not one above the age of six. She had no money, no belongings, few clothes and didn't speak a word of English. How did she do it without her husband, a soldier in the South Vietnamese army? "You don't think about surviving when you have to survive,"she said. "You just do it."
Now a representative of the Community Multicultural Commission in Garland, Nguyen was on hand Saturday at Veterans Park in Arlington to witness the ground breaking of the Vietnam War Memorial Monument, a project that when finished will be one of the few around the country to pay homage to both South Vietnamese and American veterans.
About $170,000 has been raised toward the $400,000 needed to complete the project by April of next year, the anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. A major fundraiser is planned for July 14 at the Curtiss Culwell Center in Garland.
The Vietnam War Memorial featuring a 10-foot-high granite monument of an American soldier standing next to a seated Vietnamese solider will go hand-in-hand with the existing Veterans Park Memorial. The monument will also feature American and South Vietnam flags, donor walls, and obelisks of the various countries that participated in the war.
"Having the two memorials side by side is a testament to the spirit of the sacrifices that were made, together,"said Hung Dang, chairman of the Heroes of South Vietnam Memorial Foundation and an Arlington doctor. "They fought for us, and they died for the freedom of South Vietnam. This is a great way to recognize that."
More than 200 people attended the tradition-rich event, including uniformed Vietnamese veterans and a number of local and state dignitaries. Arlington City Council Member Kathryn Wilemon spoke of how the site's rarity alone will make it "a place to be cherished for years to come."Over 300,000 South Vietnamese military members died in the war.
State Rep. Diane Patrick addressed the crowd as did Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Richard Carey, who called the then-unpopular war "…a noble cause. I look forward to the day the memorial is completed."
Dang said Arlington was a natural fit for the memorial because of its central location and large contingent of Vietnamese living here, which in Texas is second only to Houston. The state's 211,000 Vietnamese is the second-most in the nation.
"We did make a life, and we are in high gratitude to this country,"said Bui (Bui's first or last name?), a paratrooper for the South Vietnamese who, like Nguyen, was wondering how he was going to make a life. Bui is vice president of the Heroes of South Vietnam.
"That's why this monument means so much. It's about what we did as South Vietnamese soldiers, what the American soldiers did and what we did together."
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