Soldier's Journey to Service Began in South Vietnam

 May 13, 2021 | BY David Vergun , DOD News

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have helped shape the history of the United States, and many of their lives have been dramatically influenced by moments in U.S. history. Every May, the Defense Department joins the rest of the nation in celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Army Col. Danielle Ngo said she encourages young people to consider serving, whether it be in their communities or in the military.

For as long as she can remember, Ngo said she wanted to be a soldier. Her path to that career started halfway around the world in South Vietnam.

In late April 1975, at age 3, Ngo said the world her family had known was collapsing around them as North Vietnamese forces began to overrun the defenses of Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City.

Her mother, Thai-An, and sister, Lan-Dinh, left their paternal grandparent’s Saigon home where they were visiting, for the Tan Son Nhat airport for evacuation. Ngo’s grandfather took eight short-distance buses and scooters from the seaside village of Vung Tau, where they all lived together, to take Ngo back to her mother because the South Vietnamese government had issued an off-limits restriction for traveling that week. He did not want them to be separated.

Ngo said they were among those eligible to be evacuated because her grandmother had worked at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.

Ngo has only a few, vague recollections of the evacuation because she was so young at the time. As aerial bombs rained down on the airport, their airplane took off. Ngo said her mother told her it was most likely the last plane to leave. Unfortunately, her father wasn't on the evacuation flight. He stayed behind to fight, as he was a captain in South Vietnam's army. Many years later he emigrated to the United States.

Ngo's mother took her two daughters and settled in Massachusetts, living first in the town of Melrose and later in the towns of Malden, Hingham and Watertown. 

Growing up, Ngo said her mom taught her all about the Vietnamese culture and how to make Vietnamese food, which she enjoys preparing even today.

At age 17, Ngo said she coaxed her mother to sign enlistment papers so she could serve in the Army Reserve.

At 19, Ngo found out that her grandfather was sick in Vietnam, so she went to see him. It was the first of four trips she would take to Vietnam to see the country and visit relatives or travel for Army assignments. 

The U.S. at the time had established diplomatic relations; today, Vietnam is a valued U.S. partner.

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In 1994, Ngo graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Science in finance and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army, serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Since then, Ngo has had many assignments, including in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Her many decorations include a Bronze Star Medal with oak leaf cluster.