Dr. Anh Tuan Nguyen

Once a medical student at the University of Medicine in Ha Noi (North Vietnam), he emigrated with his family to South Vietnam in 1954 following the division of the Southeast Asian nation, enlisted into the Army Medical Corps, and continued his medical studies at the University of Saigon. He graduated as a military doctor with the rank of lieutenant in 1958.

He held positions as Chief Medical officer of the Presidential Defensive National Guard unit before 1963, and Chief Medical officer of the 2nd Regional Army Corps in Pleiku, the highlands of Vietnam. His last rank was Medical Lieutenant-Colonel at the Central Military Hospital in Saigon.

In 1971, he retired from the Army to pursue the political campaign and was elected as Congressman into the House of the Second Republic of Vietnam

In 1975, after the Communist invasion, along with the civil officials and military officers of the former regime of Saigon, he was sent and held as prisoner at the so called "re-education" (concentration) camp until his release in February 1976.

In January 1978, he and several of his best friends organized a daring boat escape from Vietnam, where, in the end, his family reached the shores of the land of freedom, and was admitted into the refugee camp in Pulau Besar, Malaysia. His family stayed in the camp for months before immigrating to the United States in November 1978.

After successfully passing the equivalent medical licensing exams to practice in the US in 1984, Dr. Anh had been working at Feliciana Forensic hospital in Jackson, Louisiana for 28 years, and recently retired in August 2012.

Shortly afterwards, he passed away of a sudden and massive hemorrhagic stroke on October 16, 2012 in San Jose, California to the deep sadness of his friends and loved ones.