Someone San Diego Should Know: Nguyen Dinh Nguyen - Docent on Midway is a Vietnam War hero

Nguyen Dinh Nguyen poses for a photo on the flight deck of the Midway next to a Huey helicopter on Nov. 13. Nguyen flew Hueys and other aircraft during the Vietnam War.

(Denis Poroy)

Docent on Midway is a Vietnam War hero

By BY JAN GOLDSMITH

Nov. 15, 2019

10:02 PM

Visitors to the USS Midway Museum in San Diego can usually find Nguyen Dinh Nguyen on the flight deck explaining how planes take off and land on the aircraft carrier. They may learn that Nguyen, 71, is a former pilot who landed planes on the Midway. What they won’t know is that Nguyen is a decorated war hero and military scientist with a dramatic and inspiring story.
Nguyen was born in Hanoi, Vietnam, the oldest of five children. His father was a police chief. After the communists ousted France from North Vietnam and the country was split in 1954, the family was harassed and saw their freedoms eroded. “It was scary,” Nguyen recalled. “They were always watching us.”
In 1955, Nguyen and his family fled the North. As the oldest, Nguyen, who was then 7, helped bring his siblings out of Hanoi one-by-one, hiding money in sandwiches as they were searched at checkpoints. The family found their way to Saigon, South Vietnam.
While Nguyen was growing up in Saigon, the Vietnam civil war seemed remote. By the late 1960s that changed. “Before, we got shelled by rockets and ran for cover,” Nguyen explained. “Now we could see the enemy in the streets.”
In 1968, Nguyen joined South Vietnam’s Air Force. He was sent to the United States for pilot training. During the next seven years, Nguyen flew more than 9,000 air combat hours, rising to the rank of captain. Nguyen was shot down three times, suffering injuries including cracked vertebrae. Each time, he recovered, rejected a desk job and returned to combat. “That upset my mom,” he said.
Nguyen received two Silver Stars and three Bronze Stars from South Vietnam’s Air Force for his bravery in combat missions. He was one of only six Vietnamese pilots lent to the notorious CIA operation known as “Air America.” In 1970, he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross by the secretary of the U.S. Air Force for his role in rescuing U.S. POWs.
When the U.S. left Vietnam in April 1975, Nguyen airlifted some 400 Americans to safety, landing many of them on aircraft carriers, including the Midway. Not being a U.S. citizen, however, Nguyen was excluded from the manifest and could not remain on the carrier after his last flight.
Undeterred, Nguyen returned to Saigon — a city being overtaken by the enemy — commandeered a helicopter and flew himself and 14 family members out of Saigon. “It was chaotic. No law and order,” Nguyen recalls.
Nguyen and his family eventually made their way to Guam and became war refugees. The Salvation Army sponsored the family and relocated them to Idaho where Nguyen found work flying chartered planes.
However, Nguyen’s military career was far from over. After moving to San Diego and graduating from San Diego State University in 1981, Nguyen worked with the Air Force and Navy. He joined the Air Force Reserve in 1981, rising to the rank of major. He retired in 2004 after 23 years.

Nguyen Dinh Nguyen, a docent on the Midway, leads a tour on Nov. 13, 2019 in San Diego, California. Nguyen flew Huey’s and other aircraft during the Vietnam war.

(Denis Poroy)

At the same time, Nguyen joined the naval research center in San Diego, long known as SPAWAR, where he worked as a scientist until his retirement in 2012. Among numerous military research projects at SPAWAR during his 31-year employment, Nguyen served as project manager developing a radar system that can detect a target up to 2,000 miles away. The system is used today by the Navy at strategic locations around the world.
Since his retirement from SPAWAR, Nguyen has volunteered most days as a docent helping visitors understand the USS Midway. He has a special feeling for the Midway given its role in Vietnam.
He also has a special feeling and deep appreciation for the United States. Nguyen and all 14 family members who accompanied him to America became naturalized U.S. citizens.
On the flight deck of the Midway, attached to a bench, there is a plaque that reads: “Many Thanks USA for Freedom, Hospitality and Opportunity [signed] Nguyen Dinh Nguyen (Aviator/Scientist/Docent) and 14 Family Members.”

About this feature

Goldsmith is a member of the U-T Community Advisory Board. People San Diego Should Know is a weekly column about local people who are interesting and noteworthy because of their experiences, achievements, creativity or credentials. If you know of someone you believe San Diego should know, please send your idea to advisoryboard@sduniontribune.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !!! ‘Is this Santa Claus?’ A misprinted ad and a good-hearted colonel sparked NORAD’s Christmas tradition

Your Air Force

‘Is this Santa Claus?’ A misprinted ad and a good-hearted colonel sparked NORAD’s Christmas tradition

Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus, traveling with Operation Santa Claus, alight from an HC-130J Combat King II with the 211th Rescue Squadron, Alaska Air National Guard, after landing in St. Michael, Alaska, on Dec. 5, 2017. Operation Santa Claus is an Alaska National Guard annual community outreach program that provides Christmas gifts, books, backpacks filled with school supplies, fresh fruit and sundaes to youngsters in rural communities. (2nd Lt. Marisa Lindsay/Army National Guard)

Col. Harry Shoup was sitting in his office in early December 1955 when the red phone on his desk rang.

Only one other person — a four-star general at the Pentagon — was supposed to have the number to that hotline at the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs, the predecessor to today’s North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. If it rang, it might mean Shoup was about to learn World War III had broken out.

But when he answered, a small boy’s voice asked, “Is this Santa Claus?”

Those four words sparked what would eventually become a wildly popular, 63-year tradition: NORAD Tracks Santa.

In a 2014 interview with StoryCorps that originally aired on NPR, Shoup’s three children said the disciplined, straight-laced Air Force officer was not amused at first.

“He thought it was a joke,” Shoup’s son, Richard, said. He was “annoyed” and “upset,” his daughters, Terri Van Keuren and Pamela Farrell, said.

Col. Harry Shoup, the original Air Force Santa tracker. Shoup inadvertently launched the annual tradition when a child accidentally called him on the hotline at the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado, looking for Santa Claus. (Air Force)

It was only when the child started crying that Shoup realized it wasn’t a prank call. So he switched gears, Farrell said. He broke out his best ho-ho-ho, and asked if the kid had been a good boy that year. He then asked to talk to the boy’s mother, who alerted him to a pretty big mistake.

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“The mother got on and said, ‘You haven’t seen the paper yet?'" Farrell told StoryCorps. “'There’s a phone number to call Santa. It’s in the Sears ad.’”

Sure enough, there it was, right next to jolly old Saint Nick: The red phone number and an invitation to “Call me on my private phone and I will talk to you personally any time day or night.” And ironically, the ad advised, “Kiddies, be sure and dial the correct number.”

And they did. One child after another began calling CONAD, so Shoup grabbed a few airmen to man the phones and play Santa as the Christmas season progressed.

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Kevin Lilley

“It got to be a big joke at the command center,” Van Keuren said. “You know, ‘The old man’s really flipped his lid this time. We’re answering Santa calls.’”

When Shoup walked in Christmas Eve, he looked at the big glass board with maps of the U.S. and Canada that CONAD used to track airplanes. But that day, he saw his airmen had put a drawing of Santa’s sleigh, reindeer and all, coming over the North Pole.

The original, misprinted Sears-Roebuck ad that accidentally prompted scores of children to call CONAD in December 1955. (Air Force)

His airmen apologized for the joke and offered to take it down. Shoup looked at it for a while, and then made the decision that launched what is now a decades-long Santa-tracking tradition.

“Next thing you know, dad had called the radio station and had said, ‘This is the commander at the Combat Alert Center and we have an unidentified flying object,’” Van Keuren said, laughing. “'Why, it looks like a sleigh.' Well, the radio stations would call him like every hour and say, ‘Where’s Santa now?’"

And the calls kept pouring in from eager kids. Shoup’s command team kept checking the radar and updating the kids about where Santa was at that minute.

CONAD kept the tradition going the following year and the next, and it continued when NORAD replaced CONAD in 1958. Today, NORAD Tracks Santa is a multi-media experience that goes live every Dec. 1, including a website, games, videos, books and more. Last year, Amazon’s voice-activated Alexa service began relaying NORAD Tracks Santa updates through the Echo.

Shoup’s children agreed that starting the Santa tracker was the thing Shoup, who died in 2009, was most proud of in his career. Van Keuren said later in his life, he received many letters from people all over the world, thanking him for having a sense of humor about it — and he would carry them around in a locked briefcase “like it was top secret information.”

“He was an important guy, but this is the thing he’s known for,” Van Keuren said.