Oral History of Dang Nguyen

This is an oral history of Mr. Dang Nguyen. He was born in Da Nang, Vietnam in 1964. After the Fall of Saigon and the communist takeover in 1975, his father was imprisoned in a reeducation camp. In 1981, when he had just finished high school in Vietnam, he and his younger sister made their escape by boat. After three days at sea, he was processed at the Pulau Bidong refugee camp in Malaysia, where they stayed for seven months. His aunt and uncle in Akron, Ohio were able to sponsor him. After a year living in Ohio, he moved to Santa Ana, California where he pursued an Electronic Technician certificate at Santa Ana College. Through his work in an assembly line at a factory, he was able to sponsor his father and brother to California. His mother arrived via the Orderly Departure Program. He later moved on to the California State University of Long Beach to receive a Bachelors of Science in Engineering. Since then, he has worked in the computer-engineering field and is now a manager. He got married in 1993 and has three children. As of this interview, Mr. Dang Nguyen and his family live in Tustin, California.Recorded digitall