| Birth Place: | Huế, South Vietnam | ||||||||||
| Awards: | Melvin R. Lohmann Medal | ||||||||||
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Huan Nguyen (born) is a South Vietnamese engineer and retired rear admiral in the United States Navy.
The son of Lieutenant Colonel Nguyễn Tuân, Huan Nguyen was born in in Huế, South Vietnam. During the Tet Offensive of 1968, Nguyen's parents and six siblings were killed at their Saigon-area home by Viet Cong guerrillas. Shot in the arm, thigh, and skull, nine-year-old Nguyen stayed in the house for two hours - while his mother bled to death - and then escaped after dark. News sources from the 2020s reported that one of the men who attacked Nguyen's family was Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém, whose execution by Nguyễn Ngọc Loan was famously photographed by Eddie Adams. In 2018, Max Hastings wrote that American historian Ed Moise was "convinced that the entire story of Lem murdering the Tuan family was a postwar South Vietnamese propaganda fabrication."
Thereafter, Nguyen lived with his uncle, a colonel in the South Vietnam Air Force, until 1975 when they fled to the United States after the Fall of Saigon. Nguyen and his uncle's family first moved to Midwest City, Oklahoma, near Tinker Air Force Base. While his uncle worked as an auto mechanic for Volkswagen, Nguyen worked at Shotgun Sam's Pizza Palace for an hourly rate of .
Nguyen was one of 560 graduates from Midwest City High School in 1977, where he was a member of the school's French club, Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement program, National Honor Society, and photo club.
In 1981, he graduated from Oklahoma State University (OSU) with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering., he also held three master's degrees: electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University, engineering (manufacturing concentration) from Purdue University, and information technology (with highest distinction) from Carnegie Mellon University. In 2020, Nguyen was inducted into OSU's College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology Hall of Fame and received the school's highest honor, the Melvin R. Lohmann Medal.
Nguyen was inspired to join the United States Navy after witnessing the sailors and Marines who cared for his family en route to the US in 1975. In 1993, he was commissioned through the Reserve Engineering Duty Officer program.
Since then, he has been assigned to United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka where he was test officer and officer-in-charge of Detachment 113 at the Ship Repair Facility in Yokosuka. Nguyen served as executive officer and chief engineer for Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare (CREW), field office in Camp Victory, supporting Multi-National Corps – Iraq, where he was instrumental in the stand-up of Joint CREW Composite Squadron One at the Fleet Electronic Warfare Center. With Task Force Paladin and the Combined Explosive and Exploitation Cell, Nguyen supported Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan as CREW engineer. He also had assignments within the Naval Sea Systems Command, United States Pacific Fleet, and the Office of Naval Research. At the United States Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., on 10 October 2019, Nguyen became the first Vietnamese-American promoted to rear admiral. Upon his promotion, he was assigned to Naval Sea Systems Command at the Washington Navy Yard as Deputy Commander for Cyber Engineering.[1]
Nguyen retired from the Navy on 7 October 2022, with a retirement ceremony held at the Washington Navy Yard. Among his awards and decorations are three Legion of Merits, a Bronze Star Medal, a Meritorious Service Medal, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals among various other individual, and unit campaign and service awards.
After retirement he became the senior advisor to Naval Sea Systems Command, providing support on cybersecurity and digital transformation. In August 2023, The National Bureau of Asian Research announced that Nguyen will join the NBR Board of Directors.[2]
In August 1994, Nguyen began working for General Motors (GM) where he managed the team that designed and integrated the powertrain control module for all of GM's platforms. In 2006, he became the senior vice president of Bank of America and established computer security standards and processes. After joining Exelis Inc. in 2009, Nguyen "managed a multi-million-dollar portfolio of independent research and development projects on ground electronic warfare countermeasures, counter-remote improvised explosive device systems and interference mitigation systems."