Photo By 1st Sgt. Wayne Woolley | Joseph Bui pins silver aviator wings on Warrant Officer Alvin Bui as the Soldier's...... read more read more
FORT RUCKER, Ala. - Joseph Bui once jumped from a U.S. Army helicopter to a rooftop for an infantry assault during the Vietnam War.
As a young South Vietnamese Army soldier, he was impressed by the American technology, but far more taken by the ideals his allies from half a world away seemed to represent.
“America,” he said through a translator. “Was freedom. A better life.”
On March 3, Joseph Bui, 63, and his wife, Mung, 62, watched as three of their sons, Warrant Officer Alvin Bui, Warrant Officer Daniel Bui, and Warrant Officer Tu Bui, became the first brothers to graduate in the same class from the U.S. Army Initial Rotary Wing Training course and become UH-60 “Blackhawk” helicopter pilots.
Joseph Bui grinned beatifically as he and his wife, Mung, pinned silver aviator wings to their sons’ dress uniforms during the graduation ceremony.
“Today was the day my brothers and I paid back our mother and father for all they’ve done for us,” said Tu Bui, the youngest of a trio that often finishes each other’s sentences. “We want them to know that the sacrifices they made weren’t for nothing.”
The brothers serve in the New Jersey Army National Guard. Alvin Bui, 29, joined first, followed by Daniel, 27, and Tu, 25. Alvin began his enlisted career as an unmanned aerial vehicle operator and maintainer. Daniel began in supply and later transitioned to become an unmanned aerial vehicle maintainer. Tu became a crew chief with New Jersey’s 150th Assault Helicopter Battalion.
“I kept hearing New Jersey needed more pilots,” Tu said. “We decided to go for it.”
The brothers began that path together, graduating in the same Warrant Officer Career College class to earn their commissions in 2014. And then it was on to flight school.
Because of the training schedules at the Aviation Center of Excellence, Daniel began his training first, followed by Alvin and Tu. Although the brothers trained separately for much of flight school, they lived and studied together. They compared notes about the perils of the water survival test, the stress of survival training and most importantly, the intellectual challenges of memorizing flight procedures and learning to handle a technologically-advanced aircraft.
At one point near the end of training, CW3 David Torres, an instructor pilot, put Alvin and Tu together as “stick buddies.”
“I thought it would be awesome. If my brother was there, I’d want to fly with him,” Torres said. “And with brothers, you figure they’ll study harder to outdo each other.”
Although Daniel completed his training earlier, the decision was made to allow the brothers to graduate together.
Col. Mark Levine, Director of TRADOC Capability Manager for Lift, noted the Bui brother’s graduation was a historic moment. Twenty-eight years of records showed no trio of brothers becoming Army aviators at the same time.
“What an incredible honor to have three brothers graduating on the same day,” Levine said, in his address their graduating class.
After the ceremony, Daniel Bui, said it was the matter of making the most of an opportunity.
“It’s being in the right place, at the right time, and doing the right things,” he said.
A LONG ROAD
Doing the right thing is a bit of a theme for the Bui family.
After serving alongside American military forces in the war, Joseph Bui became determined to someday come to America. But it took years of planning, and saving.
When the war ended, Bui worked as a carpenter, got married and began a family.
In 1994, he was able to arrange for a relative living in Reading, Pa. to sponsor the family. By then, eight of the Bui’s nine children had already been born. After living in Pennsylvania for several years, the family moved to Toms River, New Jersey, in 2003.
The family’s older daughters helped Mung Bui open a nail salon and the older brothers went to work doing construction with their father.
By then, Alvin was 16. Daniel and Tu got up with him at 4 every morning do a paper route before walking to school.
“We just took care of each other,” Tu said. “We knew how hard our Mom, Dad and older siblings were working. We just had that self-sufficient mindset. Look toward a goal. Work hard and get there.”
CHASING DREAMS
The Bui brothers are eager to get back to New Jersey and begin on-the-job training. Because they are all junior pilots, it will take some time before they share the same cockpit.
Each has a goal as an aviator. Alvin hopes to land a civilian job as a pilot to compliment his Army National Guard career. Daniel wants to focus on improving his flight skills with the aim of becoming a pilot in command, the aircraft commander. Tu is aiming even higher. He’s already started to check out the NASA program that turns Soldiers into astronauts.
“Go big or go home, right?” he said with a laugh.
The brothers have two other goals.
The first is helping their baby sister, Linh, 19, join the Army National Guard and become an aviator.
The second?
Become an example for the next generation of the Bui family, like their parents before them.
“We’re the zero generation … what we’re doing sets the bar,” Alvin said. “What we’re doing lets the kids that will come in the future see what we did coming from Vietnam and realize they can do what we did – or more.”
| Date Taken: | 03.07.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 03.07.2016 14:50 |
| Story ID: | 191443 |
| Location: | FORT RUCKER, ALABAMA, US |
| Hometown: | TOMS RIVER, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Web Views: | 154 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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