What does it take to escape post-war Vietnam and become a decorated Marine Sergeant Major?
Get ready to witness the resilience, courage, and resourcefulness required in the relentless quest for freedom. From navigating treacherous seas to finding refuge on a remote island, retired Sergeant Major Chuong Nguyen joins me to recount his extraordinary journey.
Experience the tension and desperation of Chuong’s first escape attempt, the relief of reaching land, and the makeshift survival strategies on an island devoid of modern comforts. Feel the heartbreak of a shattered dream as Chuong and others are imprisoned for their efforts, only to be inspired by a second, daring escape plan orchestrated by his determined father.
This episode offers a raw and intimate look at the challenges Chuong faced in his early life and how his military career profoundly shaped him.
What does it take to escape post-war Vietnam and become a decorated Marine Sergeant Major?
Get ready to witness the resilience, courage, and resourcefulness required in the relentless quest for freedom. From navigating treacherous seas to finding refuge on a remote island, retired Sergeant Major Chuong Nguyen joins me to recount his extraordinary journey.
Experience the tension and desperation of Chuong’s first escape attempt, the relief of reaching land, and the makeshift survival strategies on an island devoid of modern comforts. Feel the heartbreak of a shattered dream as Chuong and others are imprisoned for their efforts, only to be inspired by a second, daring escape plan orchestrated by his determined father.
This episode offers a raw and intimate look at the challenges Chuong faced in his early life and how his military career profoundly shaped him.
Welcome back to Unarmored Talk Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching each episode and continue, please, to share with your friends and family members and colleagues, and don't forget to leave a rating or review if you feel this is an awesome show. And you can connect to all of my social media on the Parade Deck Just look in the show notes. Media on the parade deck just look in the show notes. Or you can put in the search engine Mario P Fields parade deck and get all access to my social media. Well, let's get ready to interview another guest who is willing to remove their armor to help other people. Welcome back to Unarmored Talk podcast. For the loyal listeners and viewers and then for our first-time listeners and viewers. Welcome. I'm your host, mario P Fields, and what an honor today for me to bring to you retired Sergeant Major United States Marine Corps Chong Nguyen.
Mario P. Fields:
Before I turn it over to him everybody, let me tell you guys, when I was in the Marine Corps I used to follow this guy. He was on the West Coast, I was on the best coast. Now I was on the East Coast and I was like man. I thought I was getting promoted fast. He's like congratulations, you know fields. You got Gunny and nine. I say oh, is that impressive. They was like that's pretty much unheard of. And then somebody said you know Chong the wind? No, I don't know him. I looked at the message. He was gunny in two years. So everybody, this guy's been meritoriously promoted to every single rank the headquarters, marine Corps. For the non-military folks, that's the Pentagon level. You know authority. They told him he didn't even need to be a first sergeant, they just promoted him the sergeant major. They even told him he can serve as long as he wants. Tom DeWitt, sergeant major. My friend, welcome to the show.
Chuong Nguyen:
Thanks, thanks for that introduction, mario, and good day or morning, evening, afternoon to all of your Armour podcast guests. Definitely an honor to be able to spend a few minutes with you here on your channel. Definitely honored to, you know, talk with you and share a little bit about me. Although you know that introduction, you know I like to walk back a little bit because with today and age, you know, with internet, folks probably, like on Google right now, like let me check up this guy real quick, you know so. But yeah, definitely an honor for me to spend a few minutes with you and your guests here. So thank you so much for that.
Mario P. Fields:
No, you're welcome, but they know me man, they on my side, they're like. No, Mario, you go on Mario social media pages. Let's have some fun, let's learn and exaggerate, but in all seriousness, I mean he, he did have one amazing career in the Marines. He did. Of course there is no meritorious first sergeant for all the folks who don't know. But here's the point. It's not about what this amazing human being in front of us in the virtual space and if you're listening, go on YouTube and check it out it's not about what he did in the Marines. It is about how did he even get the opportunity to be a Marine? And from my basic understanding, let's jump right into the topic. From my basic understanding, you had to escape some very challenging situations, my friend.
Chuong Nguyen:
Yeah, absolutely, and perhaps you know we'll start there. I was born in Saigon, vietnam, and you know, at the time that I was born it was after the Vietnam War. It was after the Vietnam War, shortly after that, and you know my parents, as I was growing up, they had always wanted to enable myself and my two younger brothers for us to have the freedom.
Mario P. Fields:
All right, three, two, one. Welcome back everybody to Unarmored Talk Podcast. I'm your host, mario P Fields. For the first time, listeners and viewers. I mean what a treat I have today I have. I mean I consider this guy a great friend, a brother, and he inspired the heck out of me when I was in the Marine Corps. Retired Sergeant Major Chung Nguyen, united States Marine Corps. What's going on, man?
Chuong Nguyen:
Hey, good afternoon, Mario. Thank you and definitely have a great greeting to the armor poscat listener, your audience. An honor for me to be here this afternoon with you.
Mario P. Fields:
Now I appreciate everybody, just so you all know. You know when I was getting promoted when I was in the Marine Corps, if I got like promoted real fast for our non-military folks, if you're in the military, meritorious promotions, you know I thought I was doing good. Then they'd be like do you know who Chung Nguyen is on the West Coast? Because I was on the, I was on the best coast, I mean the east coast, and I said no, they said yeah, he got promoted to gunny in like six months. I'm like dang. I mean they're like yeah, yeah, when he went to boot camp he was so, so good that they just told him on the second day, you're a marine.
Mario P. Fields:
And they made him a. You know, a gunny. No, but seriously, he had an. He had an amazing career, an amazing journey, but you would have never known I didn't know until I got to know him what it really took for him to even become a Marine. Let's just go right into the topic on. You know, like we talked about, from my basic understanding, you had to escape some very challenging situations to even stay alive. Over to you, man yeah, no, thanks, mario.
Chuong Nguyen:
But uh, before you know we go, we go there from the beginning. Uh, just want to put that disclaimer out there because some of your listeners are probably like, let me see, six months Already got promoted to Ghanian. I appreciate that, but hopefully we'll clear that up in a little bit here. But definitely I am humbled for that introduction and a quick outline of the successful career that I have. And I say successful career, but then I will add it onto it it is because of folks like you, from the bottom of my heart, folks like you throughout my career, that see the potential in me and give me the opportunity to have a successful career and give me the opportunity to have a successful career. So it was not just me, it was you or all the folks that helped me throughout the career.
Mario P. Fields:
You know how I feel about you. It's mutual. I mean, one of the pictures on my post on my TikTok is a picture with you and I, and I think even on my YouTube channel I have it as a thumbnail when we were in Camp Schwab. But just so everybody knows, they know me, they know you go on my social media. You're going to learn, you're going to laugh and let's exaggerate, but in honesty, in accuracy, did have a Sergeant. Major Chong Nguyen had an amazing, amazing career in the Marines. But wait till you guys and I'm going to learn on this one, but wait till you guys hear from him the beginning. How did he even get an opportunity? My friend, tell us a little bit about it it.
Chuong Nguyen:
So I was born in Saigon, vietnam, and you know, when I was born, it was shortly after the Vietnam War. And so, as I was growing up when I was young, in my family is myself and my two younger brother at the time my parent has always wanted for us, you, for us, to grow up and essentially, live in a free country. Because, as we all know, as good as Vietnam is or maybe is today and you can watch on YouTube or a lot of travel to Vietnam it's still a different government than we have in America. So my parents always wanted for me and my brother to have a, you know, live in a free country. And so, you know our family, when I was young, our family, I would say, considered to be, you know, an average family.
Chuong Nguyen:
Um, my parents, you know, allow us to have the thing that we need, not the thing that we want, and uh, everything come with. You know, you have to earn it. And, uh, until now, the way that my parents taught me from an early age, the discipline that they instilled in me really, I attribute my discipline and being successful was because of them raising me from that early age. So, growing up up until about, I would say when I was about 10 and a half or 11 years old is when I started my journey really to go and search for freedom.
Mario P. Fields:
So I was like so wait a minute, you were about 10. I was about 10. Yes, wow. So you're 10 years old at 10 and you go. You know what I need to start to search for freedom at 10 years of age.
Chuong Nguyen:
Yeah, and you know, at that time being the oldest in my family, of course, my other two younger brother they are. We are all four years apart. So one was, you know, four and the other, or one, was six, the other one was about two, so definitely much younger than I am, but at that time you know about 10, my my parents say, ok, they probably talk to with each other, but essentially they allow me to try to escape Vietnam for the first time. And my story, as much as you know about it, mario, when you talk with a lot of the Vietnamese refugees, you will hear the same sacrifice and the same hardship, and some of them even more than what I went through in order to be able to live in our country today or in a free country. I mean, a story like that is all over the place. But you know, the first time that I tried to escape it was with my youngest uncle and my oldest, and I know it's weird how I distinguish youngest and oldest, but if you could believe it, on my mother's side they have 11 siblings and on my father's side they have 13 siblings. So quite a lot of siblings in Vietnam, I think. But the first time I tried to escape. It was with my oldest aunt and my youngest uncle and you know, typical trying to escape from Vietnam story.
Chuong Nguyen:
We get to the boat that looked like a fishing boat, but you know, I always give the disclaimer that don't think of the fishing boat that you will see like if you go to. You know, uh, uh, the, the pier here in america, right, this fishing boat, I essentially, you know it should be decommissioned, it shouldn't be floating, no more. So you, you know, whoever orchestrate that escape, they would say, ok, yeah, you can take this boat and good luck, pretty much. And if it doesn't work, oh well. Or if it's sunk, oh well, essentially. So we got to the boat and tried to escape the first time and, uh, just like you know a lot of the story that you would hear as soon as you know, we left the vietnam territory, uh, that first night, because of course you gotta escape us, you know, at night. But that first night, as soon we left vietnam territory, the engine died, expected, uh, the, the engine died and thenpected the engine died and then we essentially were just floating and as we float, it go into the next day, and I think it was on the second day.
Chuong Nguyen:
I live in a city in Vietnam, in Saigon, so I never get used to like seeing big waves, but I remember, like that second day it was, you know, bad weather or whatever have you and at one point, probably for a couple hours or so of the bad weather, I remember our boat was, you know, and I didn't know how the the wave worked at that time, but I remember our boat was down at the very bottom and I was looking up and when I was looked up I saw the wave would start coming and the first time I see that, for the first couple of times, I okay, it's gonna crash right over and then we're done. But of course, you know, the wave had this way, the way that it worked, and so we just floating up and down, up and down, and the storm gone and we keep floating. So that was the second day. So so.
Mario P. Fields:
So here it is escape.
Chuong Nguyen:
And then the escape operation turns into another escape, potentially get back or whatever to save yourself absolutely and real fast.
Mario P. Fields:
How much food did y'all have on this boat and water?
Chuong Nguyen:
so when? When? Uh, zero is is the answer. But when you try to escape, you know, like I was sharing earlier, the people that orchestrated it. They don't really care for you. Sometimes they might have their family member on those boats, but for the most part they're just orchestrating an operation and trying to ship you out and make whatever money that they can. And so what? What they tried to do is they tried to pack the boat with as many people as they can.
Chuong Nguyen:
So, you know, some people would be able to bring, you know, maybe one or two small bottle you know a small bottle that you buy at 7-Eleven, or something like that of water and hopefully that will last, or hopefully that it rain and you can get some water for however long that trip will take you. And then, as far as food, yeah, absolutely, you know, not even a power bar or anything like that, because it's cost basis. And then at that time, you know we're talking about 86, 86 or something. You know power bar wasn't a thing, but there was one thing that my mother gave me.
Chuong Nguyen:
That first trip is like the ginseng block. You know it's about this big and it's supposedly it gives you, you know, power and energy. You know the Powerball version at the time. So it's about this big and I remember trying like half of it and after that first time I couldn't hold, couldn't hold it in, and now, like I will never even touch that again, uh, not even that time and the subsequent time that I tried to escape, which we'll get to, but uh, but yeah, like you say, mario, it's, it's essentially, you know, uh trying to escape, but then now it's just hoping that you know, know I will survive, um, that that night, that day, so that uh maybe go back or uh, you know, keep moving, uh and hopefully become successful.
Chuong Nguyen:
And so, and so you know we go, we go into the third day and on the third day, and on the third day we see this island. When you try to escape Vietnam, you would want to go, hopefully the way that the current pushes your boat if you don't have an engine, that it would push you toward Malaysia, singapore, because at the time in those countries it's essentially where the small refugee camp that they would put up, so that refugees can, you know, leave Vietnam, go there, and then they would seek asylum from those countries. And so you know we was hoping that, oh, maybe that island is one of the Malaysia or Singapore islands and you know we can go in there and we made it, you know, because pretty much you get to one of those islands and you can seek asylum, then your chance is pretty high at that time to be able to go to a free country.
Mario P. Fields:
Right.
Chuong Nguyen:
And so, of course, our boat couldn't just, you know, move toward the island, so it flowed, kept floating, and then, when we get close enough, a few older men on our boat grab the rope that we have on the boat and jump down and try to swim closer and then pull the boat in. And as they pull in, I remember there was like big rock and stuff like that, you know they pull in. I remember there was like big rock and stuff like that, you know. So they tried to pull in and I like, oh man, you know, we might the boat may get, may get smashed up by all this rock, and then now we sink, but fortunately, what? However they done it, you know we was able to come in and come close enough so we can jump off, get on those rock and clam, and essentially got on that island.
Chuong Nguyen:
And so we got on that island and we saw this hut, and the sun already came down at that time, so we saw this hut, you know, pretty big size, I think. For that time we probably have, you know, about 100, over 100 people on that boat. So we all just packed into this, uh, this hut, um, that, uh that we found and essentially situate overnight, uh, and just wait for the next day, you know, and then we would go and explore. Um, so, come that next morning, I remember, early in the morning, you know it's the jungle, so I was hearing all kinds of you know jungle noises going on, monkey, whatever that around the jungle. You know I was hearing it. And then, you know, the sun start coming up a little bit Older man was start branching out and go explore the island and, you know, see if it's one of those islands that we are looking for.
Mario P. Fields:
So at this point, you don't even know, like you guys don't even know where you are, Right, right, you know that you are on land, but you have no idea. Is this Malaysia? Is this Singapore? Is this just some random?
Chuong Nguyen:
Wow, absolutely. It definitely would have been nice if we have the mobile phone that we have now and then, and maybe if we had some kind of internet, we'd be like, oh, we're right here, but yeah, at that time, we had no clue.
Mario P. Fields:
Let me pull up Google Maps. Okay, here we are.
Chuong Nguyen:
This is where we're at, drop a pin and you know, try to say at home I'm here. You know, yeah, definitely we have no clue. And so you know, I remember, like you was asking we have anything to eat or drink. Obviously, after three days we were tired, no food, anything. There was some rain so we tried to pick up whatever water that we could from the rain falling on the leaves and all that stuff.
Chuong Nguyen:
I remember trying to go and I saw this leaf. I was like this looks like like I think it's called pennywort leaf and I remember in Vietnam I would grab it and I squeeze it and the juice would come out and if you leave it long enough it becomes like a jello type of thing. So I was like, uh, oh, I think that's what it is. So I grabbed it and tried to squeeze it out and I mean it kind of tastes like it. But you know that's what we had.
Chuong Nguyen:
An attempt, so, uh, but anyway, so as we was exploring the island uh, probably, you know, about 10, 11 o'clock in the morning uh, I remember I was back at that hut and all of a sudden we heard a couple of warning shots and you know, I couldn't see outside because there was a tree and stuff like that where our boat was, but that's where the direction of the gunshot was coming from. So we was walking around and trying to see if we can look outside and after that couple of warning shots over intercom, it said in Vietnamese this is the Vietnamese police, we coming up to bring you back to Vietnam. Do not resist, this is the Vietnam Island.
Mario P. Fields:
So there you go.
Chuong Nguyen:
That lets you know that. Well, what country owned that island?
Mario P. Fields:
I'm not laughing at the situation, it's just you know, chong, you and I are friends and we we've shared a lot of time and a lot of laughter together. But I mean what heartbreaking. Here you are exploring this foreign place where you're thinking this is freedom, everyone's kind of excited. You're picking up some random treats that you think may have some nutrients and you're like I think we're going to become safe. And then you find out you're really on the south side. You know what I mean. You're just on a different coast. So now the first. You know, kind of the first attempt not too good Second one what happens?
Chuong Nguyen:
Yeah. So once they come up, and before I even reach my second one, I also experience about three months in jail. So I say it's jail, but it's essentially the place where they keep all the people that tried to escape Vietnam.
Mario P. Fields:
Right, so so, yeah, so it wasn't like they were. Like hey guys got it, you know a good effort, but but we're going to have to put you in the holding place and not go back.
Chuong Nguyen:
Wow, oh yeah, it was. It was like, hey, we got you to go home, you know, and try again. Now we, we actually they come up because pick us up and bring us back to vietnam. And uh, all the kid that was in in that group, we, we was, you know, in this holding area, jail, uh, for about three months. My parents know that we wasn't successful because, you know, the war passed around and stuff like that, but they couldn't come up. And you know, can I visit my son and my brother and my sister? You know they have to stay at home.
Chuong Nguyen:
But, we stayed there for about three months and then, after about three months of just doing, you know, minor tasks for the police there, like cleaning and cleaning their office and washing their clothes and stuff, like that One day they just said hey, all the kids, you guys just go ahead and go home. And we just walked out the gate essentially that we'd been watching for the last three months and then we fired away home. My uncle and my aunt was still in jail at that time. They kept all the adults there, so I went home the second escape really now, since my oldest aunt and my youngest uncle is still in jail after a few months.
Chuong Nguyen:
When I got home one day, my dad just said are you ready to go again? And I was like I guess so, and so he orchestrated a plan for me on. Actually, my dad was the one that teach me how to ditch school. It was a way to make sure that my friend doesn't know at the time that I was trying to escape, right. So he just said, yeah, go in school, and once the bell ring, you know, make it noticeable that you are not going to class, you are walking out the school. Make sure they see you, though, but as soon as you walk out, meet me at this point and I'll pick you up you, though, but as soon you walk out, meet me at this point, I'll pick you up.
Chuong Nguyen:
Hey, hey, how y'all doing principal everybody, yeah, I'm going this way just so y'all know I'm I ain't coming back, but I want y'all to see this yeah, and and that deception works and you'll see how it works in a little bit here thank you for listening to this most recent episode and remember you can listen and watch all of the previous episodes on my YouTube channel.
Mario P. Fields:
The best way to connect to me and all of my social media is follow me on the parade deck that is wwwparadecom, or you can click on the link in the show notes. I'll see you guys soon.
