My father, My Hero!

What a great way to honor your dad and write about it for Father's Day this coming Sunday. First, I want to tell you how blessed I am to still have my dad around. He's 90 years old and still going strong! What I'm about to tell you will definitely blow you away; you will see why he is my hero.

For a complete story of my journey as a Cambodian refugee and growing up Italian, you will have to checkout my autobiography book, which I will leave a link for you later, if you're interested. Ok, long story short, after the Vietnam war ended in 1975, Cambodia was taken over by a dictatorship and a lot of people died from 1975 to 1979, anywhere from 1.5 to 3 million people died. Yes, that was horrible. My father was serving in the Cambodian Royal Army at the time and in 1972 he was commissioned to serve with the US airborne division. The US military during the Vietnam war had sort out and used a lot soldiers from Cambodia, Laos, and South Vietnam to help the fight against the North Vietnamese Army.

Finding out about what my father did during the Vietnam war for his six months tour with the US airborne division back in 1972, has made me feel more appreciative and proud of my dad, who rarely spoke a lot about his past. Through the years, I have been prying more and more information from him while I still can. This particular time in his life was amazing, I never envision that my own father was a bad ass dude. I only saw images like that from watching war movies like, "Platoon."

My father was a morse code operator, he was taught how to interpret the morse codes because he was educated in both the Cambodian and French languages, because France had colonized Southeast Asian. Having the capability to interpret morse codes, my father road in multiple helicopter missions during his six months tour with the US airborne division. His job was to receive transmission from the ground and relay possible enemy locations for the helicopter pilot and the gunman to fire and or drop bombs on the possible enemy targets. I can't imagine what my dad was going through at the time, what a huge responsibility for someone to have. And what about the anxiety of getting shot back at from the enemy down below. My dad also told me that on several occasions, he had to tell the gunman not to fire onto certain targets because it was innocent Cambodian villagers not enemy targets. Think about how many innocent lives my dad saved, it must be karma, my dad is still living at 90 years old, unbelievable!

I can write forever, but words can't describe how lucky I am to have my dad. Resilience and the will to survive was more evident in 1975 when my dad and I were forced and separated from my family and put into a prison camp by the new dictatorship during the Khmer Rouge army takeover of Cambodia from 1975-1979. Stripped of almost everything he had except for me, my dad was able to buy us some time and we escaped the prison camp and became refugees of war at a refugee haven along the Thailand borders. To this day, how was it possible that my dad and I was never caught escaping, suffered any injuries, and didn't face any dangers of the jungle on our two weeks journey to freedom.

Faith, hope, and Devine intervention is the only logical explanation. My dad and I was one of the first few refugees that got sponsored to the United states. During the interview process in the refugee camp, my dad had shared his story to military personnel about his tour with the US airborne division. My dad told the interviewers that he served with a black army Sargent named "walker" under a high ranking French speaking general. After a few weeks of waiting, my dad and I were given permanent refugee status by the United States government.

Coming to America and starting a new life and having freedom would not have been possible if it wasn't for my father, my hero!

If you want to read more about my journey to America, please click here:

https://amzn.to/3FBGxUl

If you want to watch a video of me and my dad's story, please click here: