Lee Lucas

Lee Lucas (February 11,1960 – February 26, 2021) was born Thao Le in Nha Trang, Vietnam. The only son of a single mother he was sent to a Catholic Military Academy where he received his education. He was only 15 when the war ended and he was separated from his mother and aunt while trying to flee the country. For the next three years he lived, still a boy, fighting for his life and struggling to survive. Over the course of a year, at the age of seventeen, he built a 28’ boat and carried 42 other people to Malaysia; a harrowing journey that lasted four days and four nights. He then lived in a refugee camp for 6 months before being sponsored and finally reunited with his mother in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1979.