Lt. Tong Va Vang
SGU Veteran
Oakdale, MN
File No.: 14/50
March 2024

Tong Va Vang was born in 1939 in the town of Nong Het, Laos. In the early 1950s, he worked for local Hmong officials to collect taxes. Like his cousins and uncles, he was recruited into the SGU in 1961 to resist communist aggression in their country. He was deployed to the frontline throughout Northern Laos countless times until the country fell in 1975 to the communist Pathet Lao regime. Tong Va asked General Vang Pao about leaving their country, “General, all of our brothers have died and now we’re going to leave the country behind?” The General just said, “Because we’ve lost in politics.” The second thing the General said was, “The Americans are returning and are no longer helping us. They’ve already signed the peace agreement.” Tong Va followed his relatives to the refugee camp in Thailand and eventually immigrated to the US. ∆

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