Army Times reports that “Col. Viet Luong pinned on his first star during a ceremony Wednesday at Fort Hood, Texas, becoming the first Vietnamese-born general officer in the U.S. military.”  

“Luong, the 1st Cavalry Division’s deputy commanding general for maneuver, and his family escaped Vietnam in 1975 as political refugees. The infantry officer and 1987 graduate of the University of Southern California has commanded a battalion of 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers in Iraq and led the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, the storied Rakkasans, into combat in Afghanistan.”  

“’It’s a personal honor for me to be promoted to the rank of general officer, but I don’t want the promotion to be too much about me,’ Luong told Army Times. “’It’s a tribute to my soldiers and [noncommissioned officers], the folks who’ve worked to get me where I am.’”