By CASEY NEILL
VIETNAMESE paratrooper Long ’Peter’ Nguyen is determined to do all he can to make Australia a better place.
The Keysborough resident joined the South Vietnamese Army in 1968 and became an intelligence officer in the airborne division, making 45 parachute jumps and overcoming two serious battle wounds during his six years in the forces.
Communists captured and jailed him in February 1971, and it wasn’t until 1977 that he was released.
“I was very happy, I prayed for God to help me,” he said.
He returned home and found his mother had placed his photograph on the living room wall alongside his deceased grandparents.
“I came from the dead,” he said.
“She was very surprised.”
In June 1982 he left Vietnam on a small boat with 137 others, sailing three nights and four days to reach Indonesian shores.
“It was a dangerous journey,” he said.
“There were big waves and strong winds.”
An Australian representative interviewed him a few months later and he was soon on his way to Australia.
He arrived in March 1983 and lived in Springvale’s Enterprise Migrant Hostel.
“Now I have freedom. No more communists,” he said.
“I’m very, very happy in Australia.
“They say ’why don’t you go to America?’ I say ’no mate’.
“This is my country.”
He found work at Nissan’s casting plant in Dandenong in 1985 and stayed there for 24 years.
His wife escaped from Vietnam and joined him in his new homeland on Valentine’s Day 1990. They have a 22-year-old son.
“I want to build Australia more beautiful,” Mr Nguyen said.
“This is my second country.
“I’m very happy and proud that Australia has welcomed me.”
But he still holds his birthplace close to his heart, and predicts it will be free from communism in 2016 and that China will follow suit in 2018.
