Almost 37 years ago, Capt. Nam Nguyen earned a Silver Star while on a mission into a Vietnamese province near Saigon. But until a few months ago, he didn’t know it.
That all changed when a family friend discovered Nguyen’s name on a list of Silver Star recipients and pointed it out to him. After two months of phone calls and paper chasing, Nam Nguyen of the South Vietnamese air force proudly sports the medal on a uniform he wore during the Vietnam War.
“This award is a great honor for me and my family and my fellow soldiers,” Nguyen said during a ceremony Tuesday afternoon at the Denver office of U.S. Sen. Mark Udall.
While family members and fellow Vietnam veterans looked on, Udall presented the prestigious military award to the former helicopter pilot.
“It was a mission of valor and courage,” Udall said of the event that earned Nguyen the award.
In December 1973 — nearly a year after officials signed the January 1973 cease-fire agreement — Nguyen, then a first lieutenant, led three unarmed helicopters filled with American soldiers into Long An province. The crew hoped to collect bodies of soldiers who had fallen in battle.
After landing, enemies attacked, breaking the cease-fire and killing one American and one Vietnamese soldier. Nguyen ordered the helicopters back in the air and called for gunships to rescue the group.
He circled until help arrived, directed the armed aircraft toward the attackers and landed once more to help the rescue team evacuate soldiers.
After the collapse of Saigon, many South Vietnamese officers spent years in “re-education” camps run by the North Vietnamese.
Nguyen said he was in a camp for 6 1/2 years and faced intense discrimination after his release. Nguyen and his family moved to Denver in the 1990s.
“I’m very happy and grateful for the U.S. and the American people,” Nguyen said.
He meets once a month with other Vietnamese air force veterans, some of whom attended Tuesday’s ceremony.
Udall’s office gets about a dozen calls a year from veterans or their families trying to connect with a medal, said senior case worker Carolyn Boller. “As the soldier gets older, the medal gets more important.”
Doug Sterner, a former Pueblo resident, runs the Home of Heroes website dedicated to listing medal recipients. He estimated 200 foreign fighters earned the Silver Star in Vietnam.
Heather McWilliams: 303-954-1698 or hmcwilliams@denverpost.com
