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Living the American dream
  
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Elk Grove has its first non-traditional city council candidate in Khanh “K.T.” Tran
By Linda Le Park - Citizen Staff Writer
Fleeing from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon changed Khanh “K.T.” Tran’s life forever, and since then, Tran has always worked to better his life.
Running for incumbent Sophia Scherman’s District 5 City Council seat, Tran, also known as “K.T.”, has a long history that involves much more than running for council.
Tran left Vietnam on April 30, 1975 after the communist government took over Vietnam. His uncle was a colonel for the South Vietnamese army and worked with the U.S. Marines, so his family was able to leave with the Marines at that time. His mother was also a secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, so his family did not have to fight through crowds to flee and were granted access to the airport in Vung Tao.
“The planes would just land and roll, so you have to run and jump on,” Tran said. “The Marines were just running to them and the planes would just come in and out.”
At this time, he said he was about 6 or 7 years old, and his mother had to run to the plane holding both him and his brother, because the planes did not stop.
“She carried both of us onto the plane. We weren’t running, she did all of the running. Even if we did run, there is no way we could have made it,” he said. “U.S. soldiers as well as civilians were jumping on the plane. It’s pretty brutal.”
Tran’s father, who was part of the South Vietnam army and also worked as intelligence for the U.S. Government was in a hospital and was captured by the communists when they took over.
From 1975 until 1991, Tran’s father was a prisoner of war and was brought to the United States by the U.S. Government once he was released. He now lives in Hawaii.
“He wanted me to be proud of him for what he’s done,” Tran said of his father. “Most of his directive was to rescue U.S. soldiers. When the U.S. soldiers get captured, if it was a high asset, his unit would go in and extract the prisoners of war of high asset. That’s what his job was.”
Since his release, Tran has been to Hawaii a few time to visit his father, but said it was hard to make a connection with him.
“I was shocked, I didn’t know what he looked like,” Tran said. “I didn’t know what to do. I hugged him, but there was no feeling. I probably have more feeling with my step dad. I found him, he didn’t find me, but when I found him, I didn’t know what to do.”
Tran’s mother remarried and he was raised by his step father, which is why he said he had more of a connection with his mother’s husband.
He said he knows that his father would have raised him well, just could not since he was a POW, but even so, he still cannot find that father-son relationship.
“I think I’ve been through a lot of losses,” Tran said. “That’s why I am running for city council. I can’t help everyone, but I can at least help some.”
He has dreams of bringing a hydrogen fuel cell plant to Elk Grove. He said that it would not only be good for our environment, but it would also be good for our economy and bring jobs to Elk Grove.
“It gives us a vision, it gives us a mission and it gives us the jobs we need,” he said. “I want to recapture that manufacturing capability. Southern California doesn’t have space for a plant and the Bay Area has no room. Elk Grove, we have land, (Highway) 99 and I-5.”
Tran said that the fuel companies would be willing to bring the facility here, but that there is too much of a risk for them to build it. This is why the city would have to provide the infrastructure.
“Fuel cell technology is something that is great. We’ve been taking from nature too long,” he said. “We can create an industry and economy for us. That’s why I think fuel cells are important.”
Tran is also proposing bringing Regional Transit back to Elk Grove, and maybe one day having a mass transit system joint with Sacramento, Stockton and Tracy.
Recently, Tran has been under scrutiny by community members over his plan to use an auto-dialer system. He said he chose to use the auto-dialer because of his small budget.
“One mailer is $43,000 and we just don’t have that kind of money to throw away,” he said.
He also does not plan to take any major donations from various companies because he does not want to “owe anyone any favors.”
As a compromise, his plan is to only call people once per election, and to remind them to vote with a note saying he sponsored the call. Senior citizens will not be called. His main target is people who are registered, but have not voted.
Tran is running against not only Scherman, but also fellow challengers Katherine Maestas and Robert Felts.
Ironically, Tran and Felts are neighbors.
“There is no competition. We are friends, we are neighbors,” Tran said of Felts. “He has what he stands for. I have what I stand for. I hope him the best. I run based on my issues and he runs based on his.”
This is not the first time Tran has run for office. Tran also sought a State Assembly seat in San Jose and in 2006, battled SMUD official Genevieve Shiroma for the District 4 seat on the Sacramento Municipal Utility District board.
“I have run for office since 2004. I have lost races, and it puts stress on [my family] financially. It discourages them,” he said. “Failure is a secret to success. I am running, not because I am running for fun, but because I want to solve some issues.”
Tran said he has faced many hardships in his life, and that he now uses them as motivation to strive toward his goals, despite the lack of support he has faced from some of his family members.
“They told us don’t dream. I said we can dream,” he said. “Our own relatives said that to us. That made us mad. Why would anyone say that?”
Because of that, Tran and his wife - Nancy Duong - have succeeded in earning their bachelors and masters degrees. Tran is also working on obtaining his Juris Doctorate.
“We worked our way up,” he said.
Now he and his wife own the nice home they have been wanting and have four children: Three sons, Huong, Hoang and Hiep and a daughter, My-Thien, which means angel in Vietnamese.
Overall, Tran has overcome many adversities and is now living his dream.
Running for incumbent Sophia Scherman’s District 5 City Council seat, Tran, also known as “K.T.”, has a long history that involves much more than running for council.
Tran left Vietnam on April 30, 1975 after the communist government took over Vietnam. His uncle was a colonel for the South Vietnamese army and worked with the U.S. Marines, so his family was able to leave with the Marines at that time. His mother was also a secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, so his family did not have to fight through crowds to flee and were granted access to the airport in Vung Tao.
“The planes would just land and roll, so you have to run and jump on,” Tran said. “The Marines were just running to them and the planes would just come in and out.”
At this time, he said he was about 6 or 7 years old, and his mother had to run to the plane holding both him and his brother, because the planes did not stop.
“She carried both of us onto the plane. We weren’t running, she did all of the running. Even if we did run, there is no way we could have made it,” he said. “U.S. soldiers as well as civilians were jumping on the plane. It’s pretty brutal.”
Tran’s father, who was part of the South Vietnam army and also worked as intelligence for the U.S. Government was in a hospital and was captured by the communists when they took over.
From 1975 until 1991, Tran’s father was a prisoner of war and was brought to the United States by the U.S. Government once he was released. He now lives in Hawaii.
“He wanted me to be proud of him for what he’s done,” Tran said of his father. “Most of his directive was to rescue U.S. soldiers. When the U.S. soldiers get captured, if it was a high asset, his unit would go in and extract the prisoners of war of high asset. That’s what his job was.”
Since his release, Tran has been to Hawaii a few time to visit his father, but said it was hard to make a connection with him.
“I was shocked, I didn’t know what he looked like,” Tran said. “I didn’t know what to do. I hugged him, but there was no feeling. I probably have more feeling with my step dad. I found him, he didn’t find me, but when I found him, I didn’t know what to do.”
Tran’s mother remarried and he was raised by his step father, which is why he said he had more of a connection with his mother’s husband.
He said he knows that his father would have raised him well, just could not since he was a POW, but even so, he still cannot find that father-son relationship.
“I think I’ve been through a lot of losses,” Tran said. “That’s why I am running for city council. I can’t help everyone, but I can at least help some.”
He has dreams of bringing a hydrogen fuel cell plant to Elk Grove. He said that it would not only be good for our environment, but it would also be good for our economy and bring jobs to Elk Grove.
“It gives us a vision, it gives us a mission and it gives us the jobs we need,” he said. “I want to recapture that manufacturing capability. Southern California doesn’t have space for a plant and the Bay Area has no room. Elk Grove, we have land, (Highway) 99 and I-5.”
Tran said that the fuel companies would be willing to bring the facility here, but that there is too much of a risk for them to build it. This is why the city would have to provide the infrastructure.
“Fuel cell technology is something that is great. We’ve been taking from nature too long,” he said. “We can create an industry and economy for us. That’s why I think fuel cells are important.”
Tran is also proposing bringing Regional Transit back to Elk Grove, and maybe one day having a mass transit system joint with Sacramento, Stockton and Tracy.
Recently, Tran has been under scrutiny by community members over his plan to use an auto-dialer system. He said he chose to use the auto-dialer because of his small budget.
“One mailer is $43,000 and we just don’t have that kind of money to throw away,” he said.
He also does not plan to take any major donations from various companies because he does not want to “owe anyone any favors.”
As a compromise, his plan is to only call people once per election, and to remind them to vote with a note saying he sponsored the call. Senior citizens will not be called. His main target is people who are registered, but have not voted.
Tran is running against not only Scherman, but also fellow challengers Katherine Maestas and Robert Felts.
Ironically, Tran and Felts are neighbors.
“There is no competition. We are friends, we are neighbors,” Tran said of Felts. “He has what he stands for. I have what I stand for. I hope him the best. I run based on my issues and he runs based on his.”
This is not the first time Tran has run for office. Tran also sought a State Assembly seat in San Jose and in 2006, battled SMUD official Genevieve Shiroma for the District 4 seat on the Sacramento Municipal Utility District board.
“I have run for office since 2004. I have lost races, and it puts stress on [my family] financially. It discourages them,” he said. “Failure is a secret to success. I am running, not because I am running for fun, but because I want to solve some issues.”
Tran said he has faced many hardships in his life, and that he now uses them as motivation to strive toward his goals, despite the lack of support he has faced from some of his family members.
“They told us don’t dream. I said we can dream,” he said. “Our own relatives said that to us. That made us mad. Why would anyone say that?”
Because of that, Tran and his wife - Nancy Duong - have succeeded in earning their bachelors and masters degrees. Tran is also working on obtaining his Juris Doctorate.
“We worked our way up,” he said.
Now he and his wife own the nice home they have been wanting and have four children: Three sons, Huong, Hoang and Hiep and a daughter, My-Thien, which means angel in Vietnamese.
Overall, Tran has overcome many adversities and is now living his dream.
