[Vacets-local-dc] RE: [vacets-gen] A washingtonpost.com article from: hunguyen57@co x.net

Fri Jan 28 09:50:54 PST 2005

Based on Binh's parents' age, circumstance in VN, many relatives in the US, and a large/supportive Vnese population in VA... I think they will be OK here.  A sad family reunification story though...

C.C.

----
 Binh Le was the only child born to Nguyen, a bank accountant, and Lien Van Tran, a former soldier in the South Vietnamese army.  Tran was sent to a reeducation camp after Saigon fell, and he became a railroad security guard. The couple had trouble making ends meet and entrusted their 6-year-old son to the Les, Tran's childless brother and sister-in-law.

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From: hunguyen57 at cox.net [mailto:hunguyen57 at cox.net]
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Subject: [vacets-gen] A washingtonpost.com article from:
hunguyen57 at cox.net

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 An Act of Congress will bring Binh's biological parents to the US as citizen, but will they benefit from coming, now that their son has passes away

 Granting a Wish To a Slain Marine

 By Carol Morello

  Marine Cpl. Binh Le had three desires in his young life.

 He achieved the first when he joined the Marine Corps after his 2002 graduation from Edison High School in Fairfax County. He hoped that his service would pave the way for the second -- becoming a U.S. citizen -- and that citizenship, in turn, would help him realize his ultimate goal: bringing his birth parents, who gave him up for adoption, from Vietnam to live near him in the United States.

 His death last month in Iraq has made his last two wishes possible.

 Yesterday, 55 days after he died while defending his desert base against a suicide bomber, Le was posthumously awarded U.S. citizenship in a ceremony at the Navy Annex in Arlington. He was 20.

 The parents who gave him life accepted the framed certificate presented by Eduardo Aguirre, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,  and Le's adoptive parents carried it away to hang in the Northern Virginia home where they raised him.

  Seated in the audience was Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), who is helping obtain citizenship for Le's birth parents. Moran vowed to file a private bill in Congress if that's what it takes.

 "While he lost his life, he saved the lives of a great many Marines," said Moran, who arranged expedited visas for Le's birth parents to attend their son's funeral last month at Arlington National Cemetery.

 "He certainly earned his citizenship," Moran said. "His dream was to try to get citizenship for his father and mother, too. It may require an act of Congress. Looking at the unique circumstances, it's obviously a meritorious case."

  About 7,000 active-duty Marines are not U.S. citizens. Since the start of combat operations in Iraq, 53 other members of the military have been granted citizenship posthumously. 

 Yesterday, Le's birth parents spoke of their sorrow and their pride in the son they saw only once after giving him to relatives who soon  left Vietnam for America.

 "I lost a son," said Kim Hoan Phi Nguyen, his birth mother, speaking through a translator. "But I am proud he served the United States of America. At least I know he fulfilled his dream."

 Thanh Le, the aunt who adopted Binh Le and raised him as her son, said: "It is an honor that he is now a citizen. But he is dead. I loved him so much."

 Binh Le was the only child born to Nguyen, a bank accountant, and Lien Van Tran, a former soldier in the South Vietnamese army.  Tran was sent to a reeducation camp after Saigon fell, and he became a railroad security guard. The couple had trouble making ends meet and entrusted their 6-year-old son to the Les, Tran's childless brother and sister-in-law.

 The adoption process in Vietnam involved going to a police station and filling out a form before a notary, Thanh Le said. That may be a crucial detail in obtaining citizenship for the birth parents.

 Under a provision of the 2004 defense authorization bill,  foreign parents of an immigrant who dies in combat have a preferred status in attaining citizenship. Binh Le's adoption in Vietnam has complicated matters for his birth parents, who have divorced and remarried.

 "Under normal circumstances, adoption terminates the relationship," said Christopher B. Rydelek, head of legal assistance for the judge advocate of the Marine Corps. "The question is, if it's recognized as legal, and if so, will it be a bar to both parents in obtaining citizenship?"

 Binh Le was an American in all but citizenship. He played in a Christian rock band and joined his high school's Army Junior ROTC program.

 He was bilingual but unsure of customs in the land he had left behind. When he visited Vietnam shortly after graduation, Nguyen recalled, he carried a book outlining Vietnamese manners so he would not inadvertently offend his elders. She and her former husband carried photos from that visit  that showed Le at his birthday party, drinking beer with family  and cavorting at the beach.

 On that trip, he told his father that he planned to join the Marines. Tran suggested he try a less-grueling branch, such as the Air Force.

 "He said the Marine Corps was more challenging," Tran recalled through a translator.

 Le had a similar discussion with an uncle, Luong La of Dale City. "He told me that if everybody takes the easy job, there's no one to take the hard job," La said.

 Le had already served one tour in Iraq, deployed as an artilleryman during the 2003 invasion. Last fall, he volunteered for a second deployment.

 On Dec. 3, he was at a forward operating base, Camp Terbil, when a water truck carrying 500 pounds of explosives barreled toward the camp. Le and Marine Cpl. Matthew A. Wyatt, 21, of Millstadt, Ill., fired on the vehicle, killing the driver. But the truck careened into a barrier and exploded, mortally wounding Le and Wyatt and injuring six other Marines.

 "His heroic actions in the face of a horrific attack humble me, and I will be forever grateful of his heroism," Capt. Chris J. Curtain, his commanding officer, wrote of Le in an e-mail read aloud yesterday. Curtain has recommended  Le for  the Silver Star.

 His birth parents know it will be difficult to start life anew in a country where they do not speak the language. They said they see it as fulfilling his wishes.

 "If I can just be here to visit his gravesite once in awhile," Nguyen said, "it would comfort me -- and comfort him knowing I'm nearby." 

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