13 June 2025
Australian Army psychologist Captain Viet (Brendan) Nguyen returned to the homeland of his parents to assist in preparing Vietnam People’s Army personnel for their upcoming peacekeeping missions to South Sudan.
Captain Nguyen was part of a two-person Australian Defence Force (ADF) psychology team delivering a mental health package as part of pre-deployment training to more than 80 medical personnel at Military Hospital 175 in Ho Chi Minh City in May.
The medical officers will be deploying as part of Vietnam’s Level-2 Field Hospital Rotation 7 to the United Nations (UN) Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in September.
Captain Nguyen, 31, hadn’t visited Vietnam since he was 15. He said returning to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), the city of his mother’s birth, for this activity was very special.
“I was born in Australia, I grew up in Australia so everything about me is Australian but there is deep heritage and cultural connection that is still really prevalent, I feel like a local,” Captain Nguyen said a day after touching down in Ho Chi Minh City.
“It’s amazing and a little bit weird because I step out on the street and I feel a sense of familiarity which is quite hard to explain because I haven’t been here for more than a decade and yet I feel at home here.”
He and colleague Major Caroline Anderson delivered seminars on how to prepare for the upcoming deployment, the importance of peer support, and how to recognise signs of mental distress and tools to improve mental health and psychological resilience.
Captain Nguyen was "blown away" by the presence and support of the Vietnamese contingent commanders who shared their own stories about previous rotations to UNMISS so openly during the seminars.
'I was born in Australia, I grew up in Australia so everything about me is Australian but there is deep heritage and cultural connection that is still really prevalent, I feel like a local.'
“A really powerful moment for me was during my presentation on the different stages of deployments and the reactions people might experience throughout a deployment,” Captain Nguyen said.
“I noticed one of the commanders was writing notes quite intently and after the session he wanted to address the audience.”
Commanding Officer (CO) of Rotation 5, Colonel Nguyen Ha Ngoc, a surgeon, and peacekeeping veteran, shared some personal insights with the forum.
He recalled how, being so busy with preparations in the lead-up to the deployment, that it only hit him on the plane to Africa that he was leaving his daughter for a year in the most important school year of her life. It was then he felt a deep sense of guilt that he wasn’t able to be there for her.
“For me that was extremely powerful,” Captain Nguyen said.
“I had only just delivered the lesson so for the CO to have only just heard the concepts, take it all in and reflect on his own experience at the same time just shows how incredibly important this training and concepts are to the commanders and for their personnel.
“For him to stand up and share his vulnerabilities like he did really contextualises the concepts that we are teaching. I can guarantee that the example he set by sharing his experience will have had a massive impact on his team members.”
'Everyone in the room was captivated by his raw, impromptu talk and it was an honour to be in the room and learn from his experience.'
The former CO went on to describe some extremely difficult times during previous deployments, including coping with the death and the dying and holding the hand of a sick colleague as they took their last breath.
“Everyone in the room was captivated by his raw, impromptu talk and it was an honour to be in the room and learn from his experience,” Captain Nguyen said.
He said delivering this mental health pilot package had well and truly exceeded his expectations.
“It was a privilege to be back in Vietnam and reconnect with my roots to this city and also to deliver training that will stand fellow military colleagues in good stead for their upcoming deployment,” Captain Nguyen said.
“I also have a deep love for Vietnamese food and ate as many banh mi, as much pho and tropical fruit as possible.
“For me, it just reminds me of my mum’s cooking.”
The mental health training was also delivered to about 200 personnel from the Engineering Company Rotation 4 deploying to the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei in Hanoi.
This training was delivered as part of Indo-Pacific Endeavour, Australia’s flagship regional engagement program.
