OSHKOSH, Wis. — Anh-Thu Nguyen’s journey from poverty to pilot is inspiring young women to chase their dream of entering the world of aviation.
Nguyen was in Oshkosh for EAA AirVenture as part of WomenVenture. It’s the fifteenth year EAA has offered activities intent on increasing the amount of women in aviation. And Nguyen said she’s telling everyone who stops by her booth about her story.
“I grew up in a very small remote village in south central Vietnam,” Nguyen said. “In my village, we didn’t have running water or electricity, but I was always mesmerized with these flying machines. That’s what we call them in Vietnamese, flying machines.”
Her brother escaped the country after the Vietnam War. She said it took him years before he could come to the U.S. It took even more years before he could sponsor his family and bring them to the U.S. for a better life. That’s when Nguyen was able to come to America.
She said she faced culture shock in the early 1990s. It was a new country half a world away from home, a new language, all new norms and all at 12 years old.
“You go back to that period and you think, ‘oh my God.’ You can’t believe you added on, compounded stresses and factors that really influenced my teenage years,” she said.
Even with all that was happening, her love of planes never wavered.
“The one constant factor that motivated me and kept me focused was flying,” she said.
Nguyen said she wasn’t able to get her parents on board with a career in aviation.
“To me and even to my family, aviation, flying, is out of reach. It’s like a fantasy, it’s heavenly, it’s not something that’s touchable for us as immigrants,” she said.
Nguyen went to college on a math scholarship. While in school, she tutored nearly 30 hours a week to pay for flight lessons. She wasn’t giving up on flying. Eight years passed. During that time, she earned her masters, worked for Boeing, and continued her flight lessons until she one day realized her dream of becoming a licensed pilot.
Today, she ferries planes across the Atlantic, flies commercially for Atlas Air, and founded Asian Women in Aerospace and Aviation.
“I’m very proud of myself,” she said. “I mean, looking back, I just cannot imagine the things that I went through to get to where I am today.”
Kelly Murphy of Women in Aviation International, a group Nguyen is a member of, said Nguyen’s story inspires young women to enter aviation.
“Just those positive examples that girls and women can see doing and making that inspiration — it’s the trailblazers in our industry that want to pay it forward,” said Murphy.
Nguyen said she has a simple message for young women interested in following in her footsteps.
“Dream with three ‘Ds’ — dedication, determination and discipline,” she said. “That’s going to get you to wherever you want to be in life.”