Tran Dinh Hoa

A Brief Biography

Before 1975 Mr. Tran Dinh Hoa was a Second Lieutenant of the Republic of Vietnam, serving at 21 Tran Khanh Du.

After April 30, 1975, Navy Lieutenant Hoa Dinh Tran had to report to the communist authorities and was sent to a “re-education” prison camp along with many other ARVN soldiers. After more than three years in prison, when he was released, he immediate planned to escape out of the country. In order to prepare for the trip, he had borrowed two nautical maps from a close friend, with a condition that he had to return it the next day. Afraid of someone knowing his intention, he hid in a very hot attic. He bought some trace paper and used the pencils to draw the maps (trace paper used in construction and architecture). Being more careful with the trip, he also bought two more maps for one ounce of gold and a compass for two ounce of gold. All these maps were used by Navy and they had many details for navigation.

One day in July 1979, he and 26 other people were loaded onto a boat. The boats were very small, no more than 6 or 7 meters long and 3 meter wide, 16 people were men, 4 women and 6 children.

The morning of the second day, they were robbed by Thai pirates. Thai pirates began to search each person, ransacked the refugee boat and stole some belongings. In the evening, they were rescued by a Norwegian ship.

At the end of 1979, Mr. Hoa came to the US and has lived in Garden Grove city until now. He feels happy to come to live in a free country like the United States and enjoy many rights of a true citizen. However, he still pondered and thought about our homeland, Vietnam.

Mr. Hoa is married, he still tries to maintain the Vietnamese culture by teaching his children Vietnamese and knowing about his journey across the sea to find freedom, and why he has present in the United States of America.

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