Immigrant of the Day: U.S. Navy Commander Michael Misiewicz (Cambodia)

Our Immigrant of the Day, Michael Misiewicz, born Vannak Khem, is in the news because when the destroyer USS Mustin docks in Cambodia next week, he will return to his country of birth for the first time in 37 years.   Misiewicz, who is the ship’s commander, was sent away from Cambodia by his family because of the civil war with the Khmer Rouge.  

According to a news story, “The 43-year-old was a small boy in the early 1970s when Cambodia was engulfed in a civil war between government troops and communist Khmer Rouge fighters. In 1973, his father arranged for him to be adopted by an American woman who worked at the US embassy and was preparing to leave the increasingly dangerous country. The move meant Misiewicz avoided one of the most brutal chapters of 20th century history — the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime that caused the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and execution.”

Michael Misiewicz graduated from high school in Illinois and joined the Navy.  He attended the US Naval Academy.

Misiewicz later was reunited with his mother and four siblings who had come to the United States.   His father, however, had been executed by the Khmer Rouge in 1977.

KJ