Last week they returned to celebrate with the community that gave them a new start.

In April 1975, Dinh Nguyen and his wife, Nghiem Tran, were living in South Vietnam. They had two children: a one-year-old daughter, Anh, and a nine-month-old son, Dat. Nghiem was also pregnant with another daughter, Rachel, who was born in New Ulm that November. A fourth child, Minh Thu, was also born in New Ulm in 1981.

Today, the Nguyen children all live in California, but all consider New Ulm to be their home town.

Dat Nguyen, now 51, has no memory of his time in Vietnam, but he knows the story of how his parents arrived in New Ulm.

Dinh Nguyen (right) and Ngheim Tran Ngueyn (left) attend a celebration at Garden Terrace Apartment is New Ulm, celebrating 50 years since they immigrated to New Ulm from Vietnam. “It is wonderful to be able to come back,” Dinh said. “I always think about the people of New Ulm. They are very helpful and very friendly. They gave us many opportunities to change our lives.” Photo By Clay Schuldt

“Our family left Vietnam three days before the surrender,” Dat said. “Dad had friends who warned him that the surrender was coming.”

Dat said the problem was that his parents had no exit papers. His father had been offered papers before, but he had refused.

“Dad never wanted to leave. He didn’t think South Vietnam would surrender, but then it did,” Dat said.

Fortunately, one of Dat’s uncles was stationed at a U.S. Air Force base. He was a pilot who trained with the U.S. Air Force. The base was in the process of evacuating. U.S. personnel allowed Dat’s uncle to collect the family in a Jeep and evacuated them from the country.

“We were extremely lucky to get out,” Dat said. “My mom was very pregnant at that time.”

Mark Spencer, the son of Pastor John and Rachel Spencer, holds Anh Nguyen the oldest child of Dinh Nguyen and Ngheim Tran Ngueyn. The photo was taken shortly after the Nguyen family immigrated to New Ulm. (Submitted photo)

The Nguyen family did not immediately come to the United States. They were first sent to the Philippines. They were in Guam for a week or two and on Wake Island for two months. They eventually came to a refugee camp in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, where they would reside for around three months.

As the Nguyen family was moving between refugee settlements, there was interest from communities across the U.S. in helping resettle Vietnamese refugees.

In New Ulm, Our Saviors Lutheran Church was one of the organizations interested in helping a family. New Ulm resident Marilyn Hudson was a member of Our Savior’s congregation at that time and she remembered Pastor John Spencer encouraging the church to sponsor a Vietnamese refugee family. A church committee was set up. Marilyn and her husband, Dick, would serve on the committee.

After three months, the director of the refugee camp at Fort Chaffee received a call that Our Saviors Lutheran in New Ulm, Minnesota, was looking to sponsor a Vietnamese family and the director immediately thought of the Nguyen family.

In early September 1975, the Nguyen family flew to Minnesota, where they were met by members of Our Savior’s committee.

A photo of Dinh Nguyen and Ngheim Tran Ngueyn with their oldest children Anh Nguyen (left) and Dat Nguyen (right). The photo appeared in The New Ulm Daily Journal on Sept. 4, 1975 shortly after the family moved into their new home in New Ulm. (Photo by John Lampinen)

Hudson remembers going to meet the Nguyen family. Dinh carried a large box that contained all the family’s possessions.

“I realized these people had given up everything to come here,” she said.

Our Savior’s Lutheran had purchased and fixed-up a home on State Street for the Nguyen family and provided them with a car.

Rachel Nguyen was born two months later in Nov. 1975. Rachel was named after Rachel Spencer, wife of Pastor John Spencer. The Spencer family provided a great deal of support to the Nguyen family over the next few years, as did other members of the New Ulm community.

“There were a handful of church families that directly helped the Nguyen family,” Dat said. “But the entire community of New Ulm was supportive.”

Anh Nguyen was nearly two-years-old when the family arrived in New Ulm and she has memories of those early days.

“I remember the sponsors at the Lutheran church always being there,” she said. “I had no grandparents before coming to New Ulm and then I suddenly had multiple ‘grandparents.’ There were all these people around who loved us.

Anh Nguyen remembers the Spencer family the most. She spent a lot of time at their home.

“It seems like a long time ago, but it also passed really quickly,” Anh Nguyen said.

The Spencers’ son Mark Spencer, still resides in New Ulm. He attended the 50-year reunion with the Nguyen family.

Mark remembered Anh and Dat visiting their home often. He said they really enjoying visiting and his parents loved them like family.

Though John and Rachel Spencer are gone, Anh said the family still returns to pay respects to them and continues to carry on the special family connection with their children and the next generation.

“We describe New Ulm as the place we are from,” Anh said.

She acknowledged this was an unusual sentiment among refugee families. Anh said their family met other Vietnamese refugee families over the years from around the country. Not many of them maintain a relationship with the families that hosted them.

“New Ulm is my place of birth,” Rachel Nguyen said. “I tell everyone I am from New Ulm.”

She was born in Nov. 1975, two months after the family came to New Ulm.

Rachel’s strongest memories from her early days in New Ulm were the kindness she saw from the sponsor families. She remembered the adults were giving toys and cookies when they visited.

“The people here are so friendly,” she said.

Rachel also has memories of winter in New Ulm; which included building snowmen and having snowball fights. It’s not something they were able to experience once they moved to California.

Looking back 50 years to when her parents left Vietnam for the U.S., Rachel greatly admires her parents’ courage.

“They went through a lot of struggles to make sure we had better lives,” she said. “The church and our sponsors helped make that possible and we wouldn’t be the people we are without our time in New Ulm.”

MinhThu Wittenmier is the youngest of the Nguyen children. She was born in New Ulm in 1981. The family would move to California not long after she was born.

“I don’t have memories of living in New Ulm, but I know what my family said about it. I kept hearing about New Ulm as an ideal place.”

The family would visit New Ulm again when she was 7 and she agreed it lived up it reputation.

“There is a level of peace here,” she said. “I love it.”

MinhThu now brings her children to New Ulm and they love it too.

“We visited Domeier’s and walked up Hermann,” she said. “It is so nice.”

Minh agreed with her sister Anh, saying it was unusual for refugee families to keep in contact with host families and their children for this long. She believed it is a testament to the sponsors at Our Savior’s and the community at large.

“I feel we are so lucky,” she said. “We have great lives and it is because of Our Savior’s sponsors. They had such a trickle-down effect.”

The Nguyen family lived in New Ulm for seven years. In that time, Dinh worked for Kraft and Nghiem worked at 3M. The two stayed at these jobs until the family moved out of New Ulm in 1982.

The family would eventually move to California and settle in the Bay Area between San Jose and San Francisco. Dat said there were other Asian families in the Bay Area and it gave the family other opportunities. The Nguyen family started a catering truck business that was successful. The family and all the kids still remain in California, but all live within 45 minutes of one-another.

“New Ulm is still home,” Dat Nguyen said. “I consider this my hometown.”

That said, when he thinks about his earlier years in New Ulm, he is reminded of the Norman Rockwell version of America. For him, New Ulm felt like that.

“We were able to have the traditional American upbringing,” Dat said. This is part of the reason the family returns to New Ulm every few years. He is confident the tradition will continue.

Dinh Nguyen was 35 when he brought his family over from Vietnam. He said that at that time, he realized his family was in a difficult situation, but his children were able to adapt and flourish.

“New Ulm is a big part of that,” he said. “It is wonderful to be able to come back. I always think about the people of New Ulm. They are very helpful and very friendly. They gave us many opportunities to change our lives.”