Who Is An Nguyen in Turning Point: Generation 9/11? What Happened to His Father Khang Nguyen?

An Nguyen was only four years old when his father left for work at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and never returned. His father, Khang Ngoc Nguyen, was a 41-year-old engineer and Navy contractor who was killed when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon. More than two decades later, An appears in Netflix’s Turning Point: Generation 9/11 to explain what it was like to build an identity around memories of a father that gradually became harder to hold onto.

Who Was An Nguyen’s Father Khang Nguyen?

Khang Ngoc Nguyen was born in Vietnam in 1959 and experienced war long before arriving in the United States. His family was separated while attempting to flee after the fall of South Vietnam, and they were eventually reunited in the United States in 1981. Khang later earned an electrical engineering degree and built a career working in technology and defense.

In the years before his death, Khang worked for Science Applications International Corporation as a contractor at the US Navy Command Center inside the Pentagon. He and his wife, Tu HoNguyen, had one child, An. The family’s American life had been shaped partly by escaping one war, which gives Khang’s death in an attack that would trigger another long period of war an especially painful historical connection.

Related: Who Is Laurel Homer in Turning Point: Generation 9/11? What Happened to Her Father?

What Happened to Khang Nguyen on September 11?

Khang went to work at the Pentagon on the morning of September 11, 2001. American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked after taking off from Washington Dulles International Airport and crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. The impact struck the area where Khang worked, and he was among the 125 people killed inside the building.

An had turned four only shortly before the attack. One of the family’s most haunting memories comes from that morning, when Khang unexpectedly came back outside as An’s school bus was leaving so that he could say goodbye to his son once more. Neither of them could have known that it would be their final goodbye.

What Happened to An Nguyen After His Father’s Death?

At four, An was initially too young to fully understand why his father was no longer coming home. As he grew older, photographs and stories from his mother helped him build a picture of Khang and of the life they might have shared. He later began studying 9/11 and America’s subsequent War on Terror in an effort to better understand the event that had shaped his childhood.

An eventually attended George Mason University and graduated magna cum laude. He earned a bachelor’s degree in information technology in 2019 and completed a master’s degree in software engineering in 2021. George Mason reporting has described him as pursuing a career in the technology industry, following a technical path that in some ways echoes his father’s career as an engineer.

Where Is An Nguyen Now?

An keeps a relatively low public profile, so his exact current employer and day-to-day life should not be guessed from people online who happen to share his very common name. The latest university material identifies him as working in the tech industry, while Turning Point: Generation 9/11 brings him back into public view to discuss his father’s legacy. His appearance is less about giving viewers a conventional “where are they now” update and more about showing what growing up after 9/11 actually meant.

That is what makes An’s story particularly suited to the documentary. He remembers pieces of his father, but most of his life has happened after Khang’s death. Twenty-five years after 9/11, An is no longer simply the four-year-old boy who lost his father at the Pentagon. He is part of the generation that had to grow up carrying consequences of that morning into adulthood.