Lt. Col. Vang Neng Collection
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Lieutenant Colonel Neng Vang (Vang Neng) was born January 5, 1942 and passed peacefully on February 11, 2020. He wore many hats during his rich and fulfilling life, to include soldier, refugee leader and most importantly, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.　　

Early in his life, he proudly served as a solider in the Royal Lao Army. With the war in Vietnam quickly spreading into Laos, he was eventually recruited into the US Central Intelligence Agency’s Special Guerrilla Units [as a soldier] in the Secret War in Laos for Military Region II. He served as the Assistant Commander in Military Region II with the iconic Hmong leader Major General Vang Pao. Their missions during the war were to contain the spread of communism in Laos, rescue fallen American pilots, and help block off the Ho Chi Minh Trail in northern Laos.　　

After the end of the war, he resettled in Thailand with the assistance of the United Nations and United States in Ban ViNai Refugee Camp in Loei, Thailand. From 1979 to 1982, he was chosen to lead the many thousands of Hmong in the refugee camp who had been displaced by the war in Laos. On Christmas Eve, 1982, he resettled in Mobile, Ala. While in the U.S., his life journey would take him and his family from Mobile, Ala. to Lansing, Mich. and then to his eventual home of Troy, in 1988. He continued to serve as a leader, adviser, and role model to his Hmong American community throughout the United States until his passing.　　

However, his proudest accomplishment in life was being that of a loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He is survived by his two wives, nine sons of North Carolina, one daughter of Michigan and three brothers of North Carolina. He also leaves 27 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and a host of nephews, nieces and other relatives who live throughout the United States. He was preceded in death by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Chong Kao Vang, four brothers and five sisters.

— Family Eulogy

North Carolina
2022