“Lucky to live”
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After military school, I worked part-time in Long Cheng. My very first job was helping distribute the soldiers’ monthly stipend. I worked for about six or seven months then my boss Lt. Colonel Vang Neng requested me to go distribute the soldiers’ monthly stipend at Padong military base. On my way there, I missed the first plane so I got on the second plane. It was very foggy when the first plane left so it hit the mountainside and everyone on that first plane died. Then my boss said that I died because he had requested that I take that first flight out, but I was late and missed that first flight. I made it to the second flight and we landed in Padong. So after I went to distribute the monthly stipend, my boss Colonel Vang Neng thought I died. After a week, he looked into it and realized I was still alive and that I had gone on that second plan instead. Then he said if I would have gone on that first plane, I would have died. I was lucky by flying on the second plane.