By Amy Anthony, Times Correspondent
Friday, November 26, 2010
Huy Truong, seen here as a boy with his parents and cousin at the family’s coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City, moved to the United States in 1993 and graduated from Gulf High School.
As a teenager, Huy Truong remembers checking every piece of mail that arrived, hoping for good news from the U.S. Embassy.
His family had scraped by since the end of the Vietnam War, when Truong's father was shipped off to a "reeducation camp" because he had worked with the American forces. The father returned a decade later, and the family opened a coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City — a challenging business to sustain in a communist country that rationed sugar.
His parents knew Truong and his brother had limited futures in Vietnam. In order to attend college, students must pass a rigorous exam similar to the SAT — but part of the points needed to pass are based on the student's family background.
"If a student's family members fought on the American side during the war, a student needed more points to pass," Truong said.
So when the family had the chance to apply to immigrate to the United States in 1991, they eagerly began the application process that would involve interviews, medical exams and years of waiting for that letter from the U.S. Embassy.
"We were very excited," Truong said. "My parents knew it would be an opportunity for my brother and me."
And in 1993, opportunity brought the family to Pasco County.
• • •
Truong was 19 when the family moved to the United States, joining an uncle in Holiday. Their journey to Tampa International Airport took them through Bangkok and New York City.
"It was my first time seeing the modernized world," Truong recalled of his layover in Bangkok. "It was my first time seeing sliding doors. I walked back and forth for I don't know how long until a security guard told me to leave the door alone."
After five months in Holiday, the family got their own place in New Port Richey. Truong got a job as a dishwasher at Leverock's seafood restaurant. Although he could not speak or read English very well, Truong had always been good at math and he tested into the 11th grade. He graduated from Gulf High School after taking summer classes and working with a guidance counselor to transfer course credits from Vietnam.
He enrolled at St. Petersburg College to improve his English skills, then was accepted to the University of South Florida, where he majored in computer engineering because he "fell in love with computers."
"I wanted to be a mathematician, but then I took summer classes and a classmate who was very kind taught me how to use computers," Truong said.
He graduated from USF in August 1998 with a 3.96 GPA — "one B," Truong lamented with a laugh.
That fall he went to a career fair and left his resume with a representative from Lockheed Martin. The company called back the next day.
"I guess my GPA impressed them," he joked.
• • •
Lockheed Martin hired Truong as a software engineer for its Orlando office, where his work ethic inspired his colleagues.
"He impressed us from the first day," said Debra Palmer, vice president of enterprise logistics solutions at Lockheed Martin. "His energy level is infectious."
Within his first year, Truong was nominated for the Galaxy Award, Lockheed Martin's most prestigious honor.
"There was a fancy (awards) dinner at Disney," Palmer recalled. "I was there waiting for Huy, and finally he came in, buttoning his shirt. When I asked where he was, he said he couldn't leave work because there was an important test.
"This is a perfect example of Huy," she said. "He took his tuxedo with him to the lab."
Truong won the award that night.
• • •
Now 36, Truong lives in Orlando and is still at Lockheed Martin, working on the classified Cyber Test Range Program, a virtual network that researchers will use to test and improve the security of computer systems. He hopes to someday teach community college, recalling how formative that time was for him as a student.
"Coming to the U.S. has allowed me to pursue my goals," Truong said, "and I want to help others pursue theirs."
In 2000, Truong was selected to work on his first classified program, a position that required him to become a U.S. citizen. Truong was excited at the prospect. His colleagues were excited, too.
"The day I told Deb (Palmer) about my citizenship, she came to the lab with about 20 people," Truong said. "They had a giant cake and it was a big celebration. It means so much to me that my citizenship means so much to others."
His high school sweetheart in Vietnam, Thuyha Pham, also joined him in America.
The couple had remained in touch over the years, and after he graduated from college, Truong returned to Vietnam to visit her.
"I arrived around 11 p.m. and I went to see her first thing," Truong recalled. "She was surprised and crying. I knew at that moment I wanted to marry her and that nobody else would love me as much as she did."
The couple wed in 1999 and had their daughter, Kaitlyn, two months ago.
And because his little girl will grow up in America, Truong said, "I know she will have a better life."