Veterans Cemetery for South Vietnamese Opens

WESTMINSTER — Two veterans of the South Vietnamese military will be buried side by side and with honors Saturday in the first graves of the new burial grounds for Vietnamese veterans at Westminster Memorial Park and Mortuary.

Hundreds from the Vietnamese American community are expected to attend a 1 p.m. inaugural memorial for the two.

A coalition of Vietnamese war veterans purchased 300 adjoining parcels on a grassy field at the memorial park for their own armed forces cemetery.

They selected Westminster, home to Little Saigon and the biggest concentration of Vietnamese in the country.

Partly the intent is to help those veterans or their spouses who cannot afford burial sites. It is also a symbol of unity, a reminder of the Vietnamese veterans’ bravery during the civil war.

“We fought together, we want to sit down together,” said Long Dang, one of the veterans group’s leaders.

Being buried today are Khanh Nhi Tran of Diamond Bar, who died in April at age 68, and Anh-Tuan Manh Ngo of Garden Grove, whose death in May was attributed to wounds he received while in a North Vietnamese military prison. He was 46.

A third burial expected at the site this weekend will be for Nuet Ti Pham, a veteran’s widow.