Mr. Kha Van Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American shrimper living in New Orleans East. Nguyen was born in 1950 in Phat Diem, in the north of Vietnam. In 1954, when Vietnam was divided into North and South, he moved with his family first to Da Nang, then My Tho and Can Tho, finally settling in Vung Tau in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam. Mr. Nguyen helped his father catch fish to sell to the market. When Mr. Nguyen was thirteen years old, his father died so he quit school to become a fisherman to help support his mother and four siblings. In 1969, at age eighteen, Mr. Nguyen was drafted into the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese Army) and served as a non-commissioned officer to protect the area where he lived, until 1973. After leaving the Army, Mr. Nguyen married Nu Thi Tran and together they had a daughter. He began fishing on his father-in-law’s boat. On April 30, 1975, Mr. Nguyen escaped bombing in Vung Tau port, taking his pregnant wife, daughter, and some soldiers with him, and left Vietnam by boat. After stays in the Philippines, then Guam, they arrived at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, where his son was born. Mr. Nguyen spent time in the Beaumont, Port Arthur, Texas area before settling in New Orleans. After welding for a few years, Mr. Nguyen bought his own boat and began shrimping Mississippi waters in 1979. Mr. Nguyen’s son shrimped with him for ten years on his boat, South Wind. Mr. Nguyen assisted Father Vien of Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church (New Orleans East) with the immediate recovery efforts in their community after Hurricane Katrina. He authored a Vietnamese language book about his Katrina experience.

Scope and Content Note:
He discusses memory of being saved by mother during French bombing in North; 1954 move by ship from Phat Diem in North Vietnam to Danang in South (also lived in My Tho, Can Tho, Phuoc Tuy, Ba Ria/Vung Tau); various names given to him; keeping Vietnamese culture/middle names; father was fisherman but died when he was 13; fishing with father during summers; quitting school when father died to fish and support family; 1968 drafted into ARVN at 18; life as a soldier living in trees; enjoying American movies like James Bond; patriotic attitude toward the war though hated killing; politics of the Vietnam War (Pres. Diem and Kennedy?s assassinations); speaking truth about the surrender of South Vietnam; 1975 escape from Vietnam in his boat with soldiers; time in Philippines, Ft. Chaffee, and Texas; shrimping in LA and MS (threats during early years); dreams of mother during Katrina; comparisons between war and Katrina; MQVN Katrina response; catharsis in writing book about Katrina; BP oil spill.