7 sailors from diverse backgrounds pursued common cause
The seven sailors who died when the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship last weekend were a snapshot of the nation they served: an immigrant from the Philippines whose father served in the Navy before him; a poor teenager whose Guatemalan family came north eager for opportunity; a native of Vietnam hoping to help his family; a firefighter’s son from a rural crossroads in the rolling green fields of Virginia.
The roll call of the dead also illustrated the degree to which the military relies on recruits from immigrant communities around the country.
The Navy is still investigating what caused the near sinking of the 505-foot destroyer, which collided with a container ship early Saturday morning in the waters off Japan, flooding two berths full of bunks, as well as other rooms.
The destroyer’s windowless living quarters, where bunks are stacked three high, represented unlimited possibility for Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoc T. Truong Huynh. It was only after the sailor joined the Navy, his sister said, that he started smiling more often.
“He was going out on so many adventures with his fellow sailors, and we at home missed him,” said the sister, Lan Huynh. But, she added, her family was “so happy that he was finally happy.”
“He found his purpose and he loved every minute of it,” she said.
Ngoc Huynh, who went by Tan, was born in Da Nang, Vietnam, in 1992, and immigrated with his mother to the United States in 1994, looking for a better life, said Lan Huynh. But his mother struggled to find her economic footing here, and his childhood was difficult and unsettled, with the family moving often. As the oldest of four siblings, he felt the tug of responsibility.
By 2014, Tan Huynh, who his sister said became a citizen in 2009, was yearning to find adventure and a way to provide for his family, his sister said. So he enlisted in the Navy and was soon assigned to the destroyer that traveled to ports in Austra-