My family chose America. Now I'm a US Air Force colonel. | Opinion

As America celebrates its 250th birthday, I find myself reflecting on a simple question: What does it mean to be an American? For me, the answer begins not on American soil, but in the middle of the South China Sea. 

In May 1975, just weeks after the fall of Saigon, my parents fled Vietnam with five young children. My father had served in the South Vietnamese military alongside U.S. forces during the war. Like many others, he faced a terrible choice: Stay and fight, risking imprisonment or worse, or leave everything behind in search of freedom. 

My family chose freedom. 

Packed aboard an overcrowded fishing boat with limited food and water, they drifted at sea for four days. Eventually, a U.S. military vessel rescued them. Shortly thereafter, my mother gave birth to me. I was named Asan after Camp Asan, Guam, the refugee processing center where our journey to the United States of America began. 

Fifty-one years later, I now serve as a colonel in the U.S. Air Force as the director for cyberspace and technology at Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command. I have had the honor to serve alongside warriors from all branches: as a flight commander within the 920th Rescue Wing, Patrick Space Force Base, Florida; and then as the commander for the Mission Support Group in the 927th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. I’ve deployed seven times to the Middle East in support of Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and Inherent Resolve and responded to natural disasters at home during Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Michael. 

That journey ‒ from refugee to U.S. Air Force colonel ‒ is not extraordinary because of me. It is extraordinary because of America. 

Imperfect nation pursuing extraordinary ideals

As we commemorate 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, much of the discussion understandably focuses on our founders, our wars, our triumphs and our challenges. Those stories matter. But anniversaries are also an opportunity to reflect on the enduring power of the ideals that have carried our nation through generations. 

My family's story is one example. 

When we arrived, we had no wealth, no status and little understanding of the country that had given us refuge. We relied on the generosity of sponsors, neighbors, churches and communities willing to help strangers build a new life. 

America did not guarantee success. America provided opportunity. That distinction is important. 

For 250 years, the United States has been an imperfect nation pursuing extraordinary ideals: liberty, equality, self-government, and the belief that individuals should be free to determine their own futures. We have at times fallen short of those ideals. Yet generation after generation has worked to bring the nation closer to them. 

That continuing pursuit is what makes America unique. 

My father lost his homeland but never lost faith in freedom

The United States is one of the few nations in history founded not on ethnicity, ancestry or bloodline but on a set of principles. Those principles inspired colonists seeking self-government in 1776. They inspired immigrants arriving through Ellis Island. They inspired refugees fleeing tyranny and oppression during the Cold War. And they inspired a Vietnamese family drifting in the South China Sea in 1975. 

The story of America is not simply the story of those who founded the nation. It is also the story of those who chose to believe in it. 

 My father was one of those people.  

He lost his homeland but never lost faith in freedom. He taught his children that gratitude requires action. He believed the best way to honor opportunity was through hard work, service and giving back to the country that welcomed us. 

His generation understood something worth remembering today: Citizenship is more than a legal status. It is a responsibility. 

Over the course of my military career, I have had the privilege of serving alongside Americans from every imaginable background. Different races. Different faiths. Different political beliefs. Different family histories. 

What united us was not where we came from. It was a shared commitment to something larger than ourselves. 

Our strength has never come solely from our economy, military, geography or technology. It comes from our ability to unite people around a common set of ideals and a common belief in the future. 

That may be the most important lesson of America's first 250 years. 

As we celebrate this historic milestone, I think about the millions of Americans whose journeys brought them here. Some arrived on ships centuries ago. Some crossed oceans more recently. Some can trace their roots to the founding generation. Others, like me, can trace them to a rescue at sea. 

All of us are part of the same American story. 

On our nation's 250th birthday, I am grateful not only for the opportunities America provided my family and to the entire Vietnamese refugee community, but also for the enduring ideals that made those opportunities possible. 

Those ideals rescued my family long before the ship did. 

And after 250 years, they remain worth celebrating, protecting ‒ and passing on to the next generation. 

Col. Asan Q. Bui is the director of cyberspace and technology at Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command, Warner Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. He entered the U.S. Air Force in May 2000 through the ROTC at Louisiana State University, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and received a bachelor’s degree in computer science.