Vietnamese Refugee Has Poignant Homecoming

Here's a good story from the AP: A Vietnamese child flees the fall of Saigon, then returns to his homeland as an adult... and as the commander of a U.S. Navy destroyer. Especially as we approach Veterans Day here in the U.S. -- and are reeling from the tragedy of an Army major taking 13 lives in a bloodbath at Fort Hood -- it's uplifting to read this tale of a man returning to Vietnam in service of the country that took his family in decades ago. More:

"...Le piloted the USS Lassen on Saturday into Danang, home of China Beach, where U.S. troops frequently headed for R&R during the war, which ended on April 30, 1975, when the southern city of Saigon was taken by communist troops from North Vietnam.

That was the day Le and his family embarked on an uncertain journey in a fishing boat piloted by Le's father, who was a commander in the South Vietnamese navy. They were rescued at sea by the USS Barbour County, taken to a U.S. base in the Philippines, a refugee camp in California and finally to northern Virginia, where they rebuilt their lives.

Le returned on the Lassen, an $800 million, 509-foot destroyer equipped with Tomahawk missiles and a crew of 300. The ship and the USS Blue Ridge, the command vessel for the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, are making the latest in a series of goodwill visits to Vietnam, which began in 2003 when the USS Vandergriff paid a port call to Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon.

'I thought that one day I would return but I really didn't expect to be returning as the commander of a Navy warship,' Le said after stepping ashore Saturday. 'It's an incredible personal honor.'

'I'm proud to be an American, but I'm also very proud of my Vietnamese heritage,' said Le, who spoke a few halting words in Vietnamese."

Read the whole thing here.