Vindman was three years old when he and his two brothers, as well as their father and grandmother, fled Ukraine, which was then a Soviet republic, for the United States. His mother passed away in Ukraine before they were able to immigrate to the United States.
Vindman's family was featured in a photo essay by photographer Carol Kitman, who first noticed Vindman and his twin brother walking hand in hand with their grandmother under elevated train tracks in Brooklyn's Little Odessa neighborhood in 1980. Vindman and his twin brother were walking hand in hand with their grandmother when they were first spotted.
Both Vindman and his identical twin, who appeared as children in Ken Burns' 1985 documentary "The Statue of Liberty," which explored how the landmark has come to symbolize hope and refuge for generations of immigrants, were also cast as adults.
When the family first arrived in New York City in 1979, his father worked a variety of jobs to support the family while also studying English during the night. For a long period of time, life was extremely difficult. Despite their difficult beginnings, his family worked hard to realize their own version of the American dream."
While attending the State University of New York at Binghamton, he participated in the ROTC program, and he went on to earn a master's degree in Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian studies from Harvard University.
Earlier in his Army career, he served as an infantry officer, and he deployed to South Korea, Germany, and Iraq, among other places. According to the Defense Department, he was wounded by a roadside bomb in October 2004, not long into his yearlong tour in Iraq. He was awarded the Purple Heart as a result of his injuries.
The author of this biography book, Alexander Vindman, will tell you more about himself.
