http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/05/3 ... 540808.php

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Immigrant hero
Vietnam native Quoc Binh Tran, who was killed in Iraq, is honored for fighting for his new country.

By JEFF ROWE
The Orange County Register

MISSION VIEJO – This city honored a fallen son Monday, unveiling a bronze plaque in tribute to Quoc Binh "Bo" Tran, an Army National Guardsman who put fellow soldiers first, fixed cars and carried his little sister to freedom in Vietnam.

Tran was killed Nov. 7 in Iraq when insurgents set off a bomb in the road. He was riding in a Humvee.

Family, friends, fellow soldiers, elected officials – even people who didn't know Tran – gathered Monday to celebrate his life and dedicate a plaque honoring him as a "hometown hero."

Overhead, a larger-than-life-size portrait of Tran on an 8-foot-tall banner swayed gently in the morning breeze, part of the traveling "American Heroes Tribute," which aims to create a banner for each of the military members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Banners for 28 hung off poles suspended from neat rows of palm trees at the civic center courtyard.

"Bo Tran was all of our sons," Mayor Trish Kelley said to a crowd of about 200. Then, Kelley looked at the Tran family seated in front, her voice quavering: "We share your grief."

"He was the nicest person and a loyal friend," said Spec. Christina Sepulveda of San Bernardino, who served with Tran in Iraq. "He would give you his last bottle of water."

As the black velvet cover was removed from the plaque, Tran's mother, Thu Truong, covered her face in a struggle not to cry. But then she did as Army Staff Sgt. Michael Wajacs Jackson sang "Amazing Grace" and the mayor placed a wreath next to the plaque.

Among those who attended the ceremony were Pam Takamiya of Mission Viejo and her sons Anthony, 3, and Ryan, 11. "I just wanted my boys to know what their day off was all about," she said.

Many in the crowd dabbed their eyes as Col. John Muñoz Atkinson talked about Tran living "the values of our Army ... loyalty, duty, honor, courage, integrity, selfless service ... and indomitable spirit."

At least for a few moments Monday, the sorrow lifted for the family as the city they adopted embraced their son forever. They laughed at how Tran kept the family cars running smoothly and tinkered with his father's computer, leaving him unable to figure out what his son had done.

Tran's family, mother Thu, father Van and sisters Katie and Kristie, escaped from Vietnam in 1986 after Van was released from a communist "re-education" camp. Then-8-year-old Tran carried Kristie on their escape to Cambodia. From there, the family journeyed to Thailand and the Philippines before coming to the United States. They settled in Mission Viejo, where Tran graduated from high school.

Now, especially for Tran's mother, the Mission Viejo house holds too many difficult memories. "She had a dream one night that he had come home," said his father.

Last week, the family moved to Aliso Viejo.

As the crowd dispersed Monday morning, the Tran family lingered at the plaque as veterans and others came to console and thank them for their son's sacrifice. One was Greg Wood of Redondo Beach, whose son, Brian, also was killed in Iraq last year.

Wood and Van Tran instantly connected, despite differences in birthplace, culture and language. Each was mourning the loss of a son in a distant land. Wood gestured to his son's banner, suspended on the same tree as Tran's at the civic center's commemorative walk.

"My son died for the country he loved," Tran's father told Wood.

The Trans left with the yellow roses given to them during the ceremony. Tran's mother held hers close to her heart, as if it contained the spirit of her son. The family then left for Riverside National Cemetery so Thu Truong could lay her rose on her son's grave.