another Veteran that keeps a Library at McNeil...

Veteran's Spotlight:
Luan Vu , Library and Archives Professional

By Jose Cortez
Communications Consultant

Luan Vu’s voyage to the Department of Corrections took him through the Special Forces in Vietnam, a Communist re-education camp, a high seas rendezvous with a ship and then an immigration center in the Philippines.

Now he provides legal resources to offenders for their research on appeals to state or federal courts at Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) and McNeil Island Corrections Center (MICC).

Vu started his professional career in 1965 as a high school teacher teaching chemistry, biology and physics in Vietnam. After the war broke out, Vu was recruited from local militia by the United States Special Forces in 1970 where he served as Platoon Leader until the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975.

He spent the next seven and-a-half years in a communist re-education camp until his release in 1982 when he joined his family’s bakery in Vietnam. He saved enough money to buy a ride on a fishing boat that rendezvoused at sea with an American natural gas tanker heading to Japan from Indonesia.

Luckily for Vu, he spoke English and convinced the captain (who was also a Vietnam veteran) to take him and his family to Japan. From there, they went to an immigration processing center in the Philippines.

He then joined his in-laws who already had set up a life in Olympia. He has lived in Olympia for 23 years.
“We provide a meaningful legal access to incarcerated persons,” says Vu. “I try to be nice to everyone, including offenders.”

Jane Parnell, Associate Superintendent, says that Vu is a very hard worker and doesn’t get caught up in politics.
“He is very knowledgeable about the law. He works at two very different institutions so he has to adjust to the different populations and he really works to meet the needs of offenders,” she adds. “He’s very into family, and he’s a real solid citizen.”

She also says that Vu is so adaptable and changes his schedule to meet the requirements of the law libraries at the two prisons.

Before coming to the Department of Corrections, he was a youth counselor at a group home from 1987 to 1997 and then worked at the Washington State Supreme Court Law Library in Olympia.

“The field I was in before I came to DOC was very limited and I as soon as I heard there was an opening at McNeil Island I applied and got the job,” Vu says.

Soon after, he became the librarian at both MICC and WCCW.

“I love working here because it’s a change every day and I like the staff. They are all very nice people.”

Vu has been married for 35 years and has three children. Outside of work he enjoys photography, traveling and reading. He eventually wants to write a history of how he came to the United States for his descendents.

“I want them to know where they came from and how their family got here,” He explains.