Thursday, May 11, 2006
Providence Journal (Rhode Island, USA)
SOUTH KINGSTOWN -- Sok Kim Lach, the daughter of a wealthy farmer, was studying to be a nun when the Vietnam War spilled over into Cambodia. Yeng Joseph Nhem was at the same Catholic church in Phnom Penh, studying to be a priest's assistant and teaching at the church's school.
Sok Kim's mother decided to arrange a marriage. "My grandmother knew that if my mom was to survive this war, she would need a man to help her out in rough times," said the couple's son, Vanna Nhem.
"I tease my mom here and there that if it had not been for the war I would have never been born," Vanna Nhem said. "She would be a nun today in Cambodia."
The flip side of that levity is the Nhems' war experiences -- then and now.
Back 30 years ago, Sok Kim Lach's mother chose the right man to look out for her daughter.
On April 17, 1975, the Communist Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh and began a reign of terror that would last for more than four years.
The Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh and other Cambodian cities, sending most of the populace to rural areas to work in rice paddies or to clear forests for farming.
The rest they killed.
In all, an estimated 1 million Cambodians died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, either through outright murder or by living on starvation rations in the fields. The dead included members of the Nhems' extended family.
Yeng Joseph Nhem and his new bride, Sok Kim Nhem, were sent to camps where they and other victims of the Khmer Rouge were put to work clearing forests.
"They were forced to work long hours with only a bowl of rice to share among a group of people," Vanna Nhem said. "Those who were sick or could not work in the camps were killed and their bodies thrown in the fields."
In late 1979, border skirmishes between the Khmer Rouge and Vietnam's Communist regime escalated into a full-scale war.
With the Khmer Rouge's attention diverted to the fighting against the Vietnamese, Yeng Joseph Nhem saw the opportunity to escape. He and his wife and their three children raced through the jungle for two days -- with the Khmer Rouge in pursuit -- to reach the freedom of Thailand.
"I just held Vanna in my arms and ran the whole way," Mrs. Nhem said. "He was just one-month old."
They were with a group of other escapees, and, in scenes out of the movie The Killing Fields, many were killed along the way by land mines or Khmer Rouge pursuers.
After two years in refugee camps, a Providence church sponsored the Nhems, bringing them from a camp in the Philippines to Rhode Island.
"My husband worked hard and I worked hard," Mrs. Nhem said this week. "I worked 10 hours a day six days a week for 10 years."
The hard work allowed them to buy a modest home in Cranston 15 years ago, where they still live today.
But they're most proud of the fact they also provided a college education for each of their four children -- girls Vanny, 30; Vannou, 28, and Mountha, 25, and boy Vanna, 26.
The parents still work hard today; perhaps even harder. Mrs. Nhem's good-paying job in electronics was sent overseas recently and she works today in a much lower paying job in the jewelery industry. "We have just enough money for food and the mortgage," Mrs. Nhem said.
But she said it without anger. Instead, she wanted to talk about her only son, and she did -- with enthusiasm.
His mother said Vanna always had an interest in the military, from his days at Camden Elementary School and Bishop McVinney Middle School in Providence, to Cranston East High School, where he joined the Junior ROTC.
Vanna Nhem picked the University of Rhode Island because two of his sisters went there and enjoyed it. Plus, he said, "The tuition was cheap and I knew that I had a good chance of getting into the ROTC program at URI."
He got in, and was commissioned a second lieutenant the morning he graduated in 2004 with a degree in business administration.
Today, the Nhems are involved in another war.
The infant who escaped in his mother's arms from a terrorist regime in Cambodia is now fighting terrorists in Afghanistan.
Army 1st Lt. Vanna Nhem is serving in Afghanistan as part of Operation Mountain Lion, designed to keep the Taliban from reasserting itself while all the time hunting for terrorists, including al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
In an exchange of e-mails, Lieutenant Nhem made connections between Afghanistan and Cambodia:
"My parents were given an opportunity and took full advantage of it. They had never been to America and did not speak any English. All my mom and dad wanted was an opportunity to raise their children in a better place; to escape a deadly and dangerous place where they knew if they stayed it was only a matter of time before the Khmer Rouge would kill us all.
"Today in Afghanistan, al-Qaida and the Taliban resemble the Khmer Rouge. Both terrorist organizations are responsible for killing thousands of women, men and children...
"We are giving the people of Afghanistan the same opportunity that my family and I were given without having them be forced to leave their country. Women are gaining more rights, children are allowed to learn what they want to learn, and men are being taught new skills to help their families.
"America gave my family the opportunity that we needed and, by my being here, I feel that I'm helping the people of Afghanistan obtain the same opportunity to my family when we immigrated to this country."
He said America did him and his family a favor, and now, "I am returning that favor."
"There are days where I have to work 24 hours, but nothing can compare to the rough times my parents went through to give me this opportunity that I currently have," Lieutenant Nhem added. "Every time I find myself feeling sorry for myself, I think of my parents and I find the strength to do whatever is required of me.
"I hope that by us being here, some little boy somewhere in Afghanistan will have the opportunity to meet his grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, and to see his country. I never had that opportunity."
Mrs. Nhem is proud of her son's sentiments and his service, and, of course, worries about him constantly. She also hopes he and the other soldiers can come home soon; that the war on terrorism won't be a long war.
With this latest war, Mrs. Nhem said, "I've been in war my whole life. I've had enough of war."
Dave McCarthy is the Journal's South County regional editor.
Sok Kim's mother decided to arrange a marriage. "My grandmother knew that if my mom was to survive this war, she would need a man to help her out in rough times," said the couple's son, Vanna Nhem.
"I tease my mom here and there that if it had not been for the war I would have never been born," Vanna Nhem said. "She would be a nun today in Cambodia."
The flip side of that levity is the Nhems' war experiences -- then and now.
Back 30 years ago, Sok Kim Lach's mother chose the right man to look out for her daughter.
On April 17, 1975, the Communist Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh and began a reign of terror that would last for more than four years.
The Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh and other Cambodian cities, sending most of the populace to rural areas to work in rice paddies or to clear forests for farming.
The rest they killed.
In all, an estimated 1 million Cambodians died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, either through outright murder or by living on starvation rations in the fields. The dead included members of the Nhems' extended family.
Yeng Joseph Nhem and his new bride, Sok Kim Nhem, were sent to camps where they and other victims of the Khmer Rouge were put to work clearing forests.
"They were forced to work long hours with only a bowl of rice to share among a group of people," Vanna Nhem said. "Those who were sick or could not work in the camps were killed and their bodies thrown in the fields."
In late 1979, border skirmishes between the Khmer Rouge and Vietnam's Communist regime escalated into a full-scale war.
With the Khmer Rouge's attention diverted to the fighting against the Vietnamese, Yeng Joseph Nhem saw the opportunity to escape. He and his wife and their three children raced through the jungle for two days -- with the Khmer Rouge in pursuit -- to reach the freedom of Thailand.
"I just held Vanna in my arms and ran the whole way," Mrs. Nhem said. "He was just one-month old."
They were with a group of other escapees, and, in scenes out of the movie The Killing Fields, many were killed along the way by land mines or Khmer Rouge pursuers.
After two years in refugee camps, a Providence church sponsored the Nhems, bringing them from a camp in the Philippines to Rhode Island.
"My husband worked hard and I worked hard," Mrs. Nhem said this week. "I worked 10 hours a day six days a week for 10 years."
The hard work allowed them to buy a modest home in Cranston 15 years ago, where they still live today.
But they're most proud of the fact they also provided a college education for each of their four children -- girls Vanny, 30; Vannou, 28, and Mountha, 25, and boy Vanna, 26.
The parents still work hard today; perhaps even harder. Mrs. Nhem's good-paying job in electronics was sent overseas recently and she works today in a much lower paying job in the jewelery industry. "We have just enough money for food and the mortgage," Mrs. Nhem said.
But she said it without anger. Instead, she wanted to talk about her only son, and she did -- with enthusiasm.
His mother said Vanna always had an interest in the military, from his days at Camden Elementary School and Bishop McVinney Middle School in Providence, to Cranston East High School, where he joined the Junior ROTC.
Vanna Nhem picked the University of Rhode Island because two of his sisters went there and enjoyed it. Plus, he said, "The tuition was cheap and I knew that I had a good chance of getting into the ROTC program at URI."
He got in, and was commissioned a second lieutenant the morning he graduated in 2004 with a degree in business administration.
Today, the Nhems are involved in another war.
The infant who escaped in his mother's arms from a terrorist regime in Cambodia is now fighting terrorists in Afghanistan.
Army 1st Lt. Vanna Nhem is serving in Afghanistan as part of Operation Mountain Lion, designed to keep the Taliban from reasserting itself while all the time hunting for terrorists, including al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
In an exchange of e-mails, Lieutenant Nhem made connections between Afghanistan and Cambodia:
"My parents were given an opportunity and took full advantage of it. They had never been to America and did not speak any English. All my mom and dad wanted was an opportunity to raise their children in a better place; to escape a deadly and dangerous place where they knew if they stayed it was only a matter of time before the Khmer Rouge would kill us all.
"Today in Afghanistan, al-Qaida and the Taliban resemble the Khmer Rouge. Both terrorist organizations are responsible for killing thousands of women, men and children...
"We are giving the people of Afghanistan the same opportunity that my family and I were given without having them be forced to leave their country. Women are gaining more rights, children are allowed to learn what they want to learn, and men are being taught new skills to help their families.
"America gave my family the opportunity that we needed and, by my being here, I feel that I'm helping the people of Afghanistan obtain the same opportunity to my family when we immigrated to this country."
He said America did him and his family a favor, and now, "I am returning that favor."
"There are days where I have to work 24 hours, but nothing can compare to the rough times my parents went through to give me this opportunity that I currently have," Lieutenant Nhem added. "Every time I find myself feeling sorry for myself, I think of my parents and I find the strength to do whatever is required of me.
"I hope that by us being here, some little boy somewhere in Afghanistan will have the opportunity to meet his grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, and to see his country. I never had that opportunity."
Mrs. Nhem is proud of her son's sentiments and his service, and, of course, worries about him constantly. She also hopes he and the other soldiers can come home soon; that the war on terrorism won't be a long war.
With this latest war, Mrs. Nhem said, "I've been in war my whole life. I've had enough of war."
Dave McCarthy is the Journal's South County regional editor.
2 comments:
If you wanted to fight for freedom , you must need American Governments to help you, otherwise you never will!!...
freedom is within all of us, we are free from the very first time we are born, it is our society and customs, which limits our freedom
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