Lt. Chertoua Yang
SGU Veteran
Minneapolis, MN
File No.: 18/50
April 2024

Chertoua Yang was born in 1954 in Houa Nam Un, Sam Neua Province, Laos. At age 16, he joined the Secret War as a SGU soldier. He would often rotate with his father being deployed to the frontline. Starting in 1967, the North Vietnamese Army forces had gained ground in their province. This triggered some of the US-allied Hmong soldiers and their families to evacuate to the Sam Thong-Long Cheng areas. In 1975, the US abandoned the war and pulled all of its military personnel out of Laos. Chertoua and his family returned to their farming life. Chertoua married his wife in 1978, and soon their village was under attack by the communist troops. Unable to live in his homeland due to being a former soldier working for the CIA, in 1979, they fled Laos to Thailand. Chertoua remained in Thailand for 15 years. He helped save other Hmong families fleeing their war-torn homeland before himself immigrating to the US in 1994. ∆

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