I like inspirational stories. We in the media don’t do enough of them. So when I heard about the Vietnamese-Americans of New Orleans and how their remarkable recovery after Katrina lifted an entire community, I was intrigued.

The tip came from a friend of mine named Thuy Vu. Thuy and her husband Phuc are former boat people who now operate a radio station in Houston. In the aftermath of Katrina, their station became an open channel for communication and a beacon of hope, broadcasting in both Vietnamese and English to help connect storm evacuees with families willing to open their doors, shelter and feed those in need.

Thuy and Phuc’s own stories are amazing—from their harrowing escapes from Vietnam to the hard-earned success they have achieved in this country. They are fellow journalists and very good at what they do. So when Thuy told me they were taking a van full of friends to New Orleans to celebrate the lunar New Year and invited me to go along, I hitched a ride.

By the way, as you watch the report, Thuy is the woman sitting next to me in the van at the top of the piece. Phuc, who navigated treacherous waters and regimes in his journey to America, is the guy at the wheel asking, “Which exit?” He was kidding, of course. Phuc doesn’t miss many turns.

Before leaving New York, I took one of NBC’s classes on how to operate a digital video camera. My plan was to take a camera with me and, if the story panned out, shoot some not ready for prime time video to show my bosses back at headquarters. They weren’t sold on the story, and I wasn’t sure myself, but we all agreed I should check it out. And bringing back some videotape might help us all decide. Now, I’m no Rich White, Fred Schuh, Bob Goldsborough or Mark Falstad, to name a few of the great cameramen I’m fortunate enough to work with. But multi-tasking is becoming standard operating procedure these days, and I was looking forward to trying my hand with the DV cam. Ultimately, a wise Dateline senior, concerned about my videotaping skills, assigned an assistant producer named Tommy Nguyen to go with me. Tommy will be the first to tell you he’s no expert with a DV cam either, but he’s light years ahead of me. In any case, our video was more for in-house review than for broadcast. Or was it?

Turns out, the spontaneous, point-and-shoot video Tommy and I brought back, as shaky as it sometimes was, seemed to capture the story pretty well—a story of resourcefulness, resilience and recovery with a lesson for communities everywhere about the power of pulling together.

As a Vietnamese-American, Tommy came away feeling proud of his heritage. And I came away deeply impressed. No matter what our cultural background, we Americans have always taken pride in our ingenuity and initiative in times of crisis. The faith-based, grassroots recovery of these Vietnamese-Americans amidst all the damage inflicted by Katrina is a can-do, feel good story that all Americans can applaud.



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