My mothers name is Nam and she was born April 2, 1938. My fathers name is Dale D. Moe and was an American soldier. My mother was very poor and went to work at the American base as a room maid. During this time working there my mother loved this man and lived with him. He was a driver for a fuel transportation unit. In 1968 when my mother was four months pregnant with me he was transferred to Cam Ranh. He would stop by to see my mother occasionally. He told my mother that when he went back to the US he would make arrangements for my mother and I to come to the USA.

My mother has not communicated with him since that time, and didn't know if he was alive or dead. In 2003 a search was done for my father. We found out that he had died in 1978. I still would like to go to America.

My mother was married to a Vietnamese and had four children. Her husband died in 1960. I have two brothers and two sisters and they treat me very well. The neighbors however, treated me very bad because I am AmerAsian.

I only went to grade two, 6 years old, when I quit school. The children treated me very bad, called me names, and didn't want to play with me because I am AmerAsian.

We were very poor and had to work hard to make a living. My mother would go to the forest and cut trees and then burn them to make charcoal, and then we would sell them at the market. I lived at home until I got married in 1988. I continued to make coal to earn a living. I also would go to the bus station and sell tea to make money.

I have worked as a housekeeper also. Right now I raise pigs to make some money. I also go to a restaurant at 4 AM until 9 AM and wash dishes. Then I go back at 4 PM until 9PM and I earn 20,000 VND a day. I also collect the waste food to feed my pigs. My husband works for a company many hours everyday, 7 days a week, from 7 AM until 9 PM with 2 hours off during the day. He works for a furniture company and goes to the forest and buys good wood to make the furniture out of it. He gets 1,200,000 VND a month.

The hardest thing for me as an AmerAsian is that I was unable to get an education. I went to school until grade 2 and then quit because I was treated so terrible. Because of this I have been unable to get a good job. No one wants to hire me. I can only get work that is very hard to do.

The good thing about being an AmerAsian is that I have relatives in the USA. The American Consulate has a program for me to apply and go to the USA.

Jon's comments:
Hoa was the first case I really worked with. We did a search for her father. Dale died in 1978. We were able to reach distant relatives and found out this information. He had served in World War 2, Korea, and three tours in Vietnam. His last tour in Vietnam he was injured and died a few years later resulting from those injuries.