Lt. Tony Nao Tong Yang
SGU Veteran
St. Paul, MN
File No.: 21/50
April 2024

Nao Tong “Tony” Yang was born in Nan Sam, near the Nong Het District, in Xieng Khouang Province, Laos in 1955. His parents moved them around and finally relocated to the town of Mouang Cha. He wanted to be a police officer when he grew up. As the Secret War was raging on throughout the country, he was fortunate to attend school in Vientiane in 1966. He stayed in a residence owned by a missionary pastor while there. By 1971, he had finished school and returned home. He was drawn into the war as a Special Guerrilla Units soldier and sent to military training at Mouang Cha. Then they were deployed to fight the North Vietnamese Army and Pathet Lao forces at the frontline. Two of his comrades died in combat. As the communists gained the upper hand of the country in 1975, Nao Tong and his family retreated to live a low-profile life, returning to farming to sustain their living. However, three years later his father was captured by the communist Pathet Lao troops. Nao Tong and his family no longer felt their lives to be safe in their homeland. In 1978, he decided to take his family across the Mekong River into Thailand. They stayed in the refugee camp for a year before immigrating to La Crosse, Wisconsin. In 1997, they moved to Minnesota since he was offered a higher paying job as a machinist. ∆

*** Video has been edited and modified, which the correspondence from the video may different from the transcription. Please review the transcription as needed to reflect video flow. English transcription for this interview is available upon request.