Phan Ngo, once a refugee boy airlifted out of Vietnam when the communist forces overran Saigon in 1975, worked his way up the ranks at the San Jose Police Department and has now become the first Vietnamese-American police captain in the country, reports San Francisco’s KNTV-11 here. Ngo is pictured above, by KNTV, with his new golden captain’s bars.
As an 8-year-old (pictured below left), Ngo was airlifted by U.S. military helicopter and landed in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas with aunts and an uncle. His father, a soldier in the South Vietnamese army, had died in combat. Ngo has never met his father.
As a captain, Ngo now commands roughly 100 officers in the SJPD’s Central Division. Ngo was promoted back in January of this year.
He told the TV station, “Being Vietnamese-American is icing on the cake. It’s not the only reason or complete picture of how I got to where I am now.” His colleagues agreed that it was not his heritage, but rather his work as a cop, that earned him the captain’s bars.
Ngo’s policing philosophy, which he shared with officers in his command, is to “get out of the patrol car, walk the beat once in a while, get to know the people.”
He said he looked forward to the day the promotion of someone named “Nguyen” or “Sanchez” becomes a non-story.
Amen.
thats awesome.
Best wishes. You make us Viet-Am proud.
Wow. Thats rly something.
I’m viet and one day I hope to be a San Francisco Police Officer.