Dog Tag Return – Army Veteran Elmer Amen
Vietnam Army veteran, Elmer Amen, served with the 11th Armored Cavalry - A TRP, 1/11 - 2/1969-2/1970. Little did he know that a dog tag he lost would make its way home to him in Woodland, CA almost 50 years later.
In a ceremony at the American Legion Yolo Post 77 in Woodland, CA, Amen was presented with his long lost dog tag.
Amen's dog tag began it's journey home after British Army/Navy veteran, Aaron Bougourd, received it from the family of Major Thien in 2006. Bougourd had been volunteering for the Father Ray Foundation Orphanage in Thialand when he met Major Thien, and helped him find his lost family in Vietnam. Thien, a South Vietnamese officer living as a refugee. Major Ly Kim Thien was commissioned as an officer of the Republic of Vietnam Air Force in 1964 and served in several capacities throughout Vietnam up until the fall of Saigon in 1975. It was after this that he was sent to a communist reeducation camp, where he was tortured and forced to denounce his anti-communist beliefs. In 1994 he escaped Vietnam on foot through Cambodia and on to Thailand, which is where Aaron Bougourd met him. Thien's family, as a token of appreciation, gave Bougourd some dog tags they had found at Ben Hoa Air Base.
Aaron, now a resident of the UK, reached out to Patriot Connections Dog Tag Project to help try and return the dog tags to the veterans they belong to.
After researching and finding Amen, arrangements were made for his dog tag to be returned down the street from where he resides at his local American Legion.