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Posted by Jon Burnett
on 4/5/2009, 15:40:50
71.62.190.X
My interest is in finding independent confirmation that Lewis Zimmerman was in Takhli in early 1970. My girlfriend is his daughter. Her mother, a young Thai woman by the name of Sumalee Choyprasirtnapa working for the USAF as an administrative clerk, became pregnant by Mr. Zimmerman while dating him during that time period. He is probably not aware that he has a child from that relationship since he left Thailand in March of 1970, before she became aware that she was pregnant. My girlfriend was born on October 31st, 1970 in Thailand and raised by her mother and her grandparents.
As the child of an American citizen she has the right to immigrate to the US through a provision in US immigration law specifically for Amerasian children from Thailand and other SE Asian countries. Many of these Amerasian children were treated poorly in their countries because they look different than the others. The US government did the right thing some years ago to provide this mechanism for these children to immigrate to the US. My girlfriend is an adult now but the trauma of growing up in Thailand as a mixed race child is still with her.
We have no interest in determining the current whereabouts or disturbing Mr. Zimmerman in any way. We only need to confirm his presence in Thailand at that time through military records or perhaps through some other means like a confirmation from a friend or colleague. We are not sure what the US Immigration Service will require. We would like to have as much supporting evidence as possible when she files the application. We do have letters from two of my girlfriend's uncles about having met him and one of the uncle's was taken on base by Mr. Zimmerman and shown what he did for a job. This uncle told us that Mr. Zimmerman worked in an area handling bombs. I assume that this means that he was in a munitions unit. If we have some confirmation of Mr. Zimmerman's presence in Takhli from an independent source along with the letters from her mother and uncles then we will file the application and hope for the best. If we had a picture of Mr. Zimmerman to add to the application, all the better.
Please contact me if you can help in any way at jon@chapinco.com or at (540) 454-5575.
Thank you,
Jon Burnett
Purcellville, Virginia
166
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