“Saw battle at age 13” 
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There was a brother called Doua that lived with my brother, whose military camp was stationed at Nam Song and on the other side was an outpost called Sam Neua. Sam Neua was continuously being attacked by the NVA soldiers. The NVA injured Doua, and he was discharged home. My brother then took me to go live with him and cook for him. I was about 13 years old. 

There was no more schooling so I lived with Doua for 3 months in Sam Neua. There were shootings almost every day. In the morning when you leave to fetch water, you would see the NVA footprints and belongings on the roads. The NVA could see you, but they didn’t shoot while you were getting water. This would ruin their plans. If you met face-to-face with them, then they would shoot. If they’re hiding, then they didn’t fire. Almost every week, we battled each other for a day or two, and skipped a day or two in between. The NVA climbed up to attack our camp. [We did not die], perhaps Heaven spared our lives. 

My younger brother had just died and then my mom got ill so she was taken to Sam Thong Hospital. We lived there by ourselves for about 2-3 months, and then my dad took an airplane to pick us up to go to Long Cheng. We arrived in Long Cheng in 1967 and lived there for 5-6 months when my dad got ill and passed away. My older brother was about 15 years old and was enlisted in the military. When my dad died, he came back home. We then went to live with some families. We lived with them for 3 years and I completed two years of school.