Photo: Steve Greene
Twice a year for 47 years, Hoang Ly has sent a thank-you email to Stephen Greene, who helped his family escape Saigon in 1975. “I look at Steve as my Statue of Liberty,” says Ly, now 77. “Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, my family is reunited together. Without Steve, we might not be here.” Greene, 80, is a former Marine who held the top position in the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City. In the early 1970s, he became friends with Ly, a Vietnamese police officer who was head of the country’s narcotics bureau. After Ly flew to D.C. in March 1975 for a training course, Greene got Ly’s pregnant wife, Ngo Giang Tieu, and daughter Robin out of Saigon by pretending they were his wife and daughter. Ly got a job at DEA headquarters and employees there raised funds to help him put a down payment on a small home. “Every Thanksgiving when we gather as a family, we know that Steve Greene is the reason we’re all able to celebrate together,” Ly said.
|
|
More:
