Family biography:

Captain Kou Bliaxa Vang was born in 1955, in Ban Nabouk, Province of Xieng Khouang, Laos, to Major Bliaxa Vang and Song Yang. He is one of fifteen children. In the early 1960s, the Vang family moved to Long Cheng, Laos so Major Bliaxa Vang could serve as one of General Vang Pao’s personal bodyguards.

In 1969, Capt. Vang graduated high school and was recruited by the CIA led by Jerry Daniels. Capt. Vang could speak broken English and was assigned to report on enemy activity on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which was frequently used as a supply route by the northern communist Vietnamese forces.   

When enemy movement was detected, that information would be quickly relayed to the airborne pilots so bombs could be dropped onto the enemy on the trail. “Between 1964 to 1973, the US dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos in an attempt to stop communism, making it the most heavily bombed country in history relative to the site of its population.”

In 1972, Capt. Vang was reassigned as an air traffic controller at the Long Cheng Airport, the busiest airport during the Vietnam War. In 1973, at the age of 17 years old, Capt. Vang married Song Ly and welcomed their 1st child - a daughter. By 1975, the US decided to pull out of Vietnam and with that, so did the CIA in Laos. The enemy immediately turned their focus on Long Cheng and began shooting at the airport. Everyone frantically ran to gain passage on the remaining C-130 plane headed for Thailand. Song and their daughter made it on the last plane, leaving Capt. Vang behind, who was still working in the control tower. Unable to escape with his family, Capt. Vang thought he would never see his family again. His wife thought he was dead. 

In the meantime, Song and their daughter settled into a refugee camp in Thailand. Each  morning, they would go to the bus stop where the new refugees arrived and waited to see if Capt. Vang would be one of them. Capt. Vang eluded the enemy by pretending to be a student and hiding his military ID in his sock. After a tumultuous month, Capt. Vang finally stepped off the bus and was reunited with his family. They were filled with emotions, overjoyed with happiness, embraced each other and cried.

In 1976, Capt. Vang’s family was sponsored by Zion Lutheran Church in Belvidere, Illinois. The Hmong people were very fortunate that the United States took them into their arms during that time. Capt. Kou Bliaxa Vang went on to graduate from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry as a Doctor of Dental Surgery. He continued his military service to his new country, the United States of America, by joining the Minnesota Air National Guard (United States Air Force) as a Dental Corp Officer, retiring in 2018 after 20 years with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.