Capt. Blia Ya Lor
SGU/RLA Veteran
St. Paul, MN
File No.: 33/50
August 2024

Blia Ya Lor was born in Nam Mai, Laos in 1945. He was one of the soldiers in the Royal Lao Army’s Battalion 21 that was stationed in Xieng Khouang Province, Laos. In 1962, Lor and members of his battalion walked to Padong to pick up weapons and supplies that had been delivered by the CIA and personnel of the US-supported Thai Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit (PARU). He was selected to go for military training in Thailand. Upon his return, he was tasked with defending his homeland from the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) invasion in the Secret War, which he did for the next 13 years. On a military deployment, Lor was wounded in an enemy grenade explosion. Someone reported to his parents that he had been shot dead. His parents were relieved that this was a false report. In the last battle before the war was over in 1975, Lor and his company held the NVA and Pathet Lao forces at Sala Phou Khoun from a full assault at the CIA airbase Long Cheng. After the war, he joined the Chao Fa anti-communist movement, operating out of Laos and Thailand until 1994. He believed that Hmong refugees no longer had a future in Thailand. Lor and his family were among the last Hmong refugees from the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp to immigrate to the US. ∆

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