Dean Tran was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and emigrated with his family to the United States at the age of 4.  The son of a military officer who fought with the US Forces, and a successful business family in Vietnam, he knows what it means to leave everything behind and start again. His family sacrificed every possession they had to flee from the communist-controlled country of Vietnam after the war ended to achieve freedom. After fleeing Vietnam and surviving the ocean while others perished, the family spent 2 years in refugee camps while waiting for their green cards to come to the United States.  In 1980, he and his family were sponsored by a Catholic priest in Clinton, a town that he calls his first real home.