2nd Lt. Nhia Pao Vue
SGU Veteran
Coon Rapids, MN
File No.: 45/50
August 2024

By the mid-1960s, the Secret War had intensified, with more North Vietnamese Army entering Laos to annihilate the Special Guerrilla Units (SGU). The SGU were led and commanded by General Vang Pao, who was at the time recruiting soldiers to defend the Mouang Nga region against the North Vietnamese Army. In 1966, Nhia Pao Vue got married and joined the SGU forces. He had been deployed to counter enemy troops numerous times. In 1971, he was placed in the Group Mobile (GM) 22 and trained in the large artillery unit in Long Cheng. In May 1975, the US pulled out of Laos, abandoning  its allies. To avoid being captured by the communist troops for being a former CIA soldier in the conflict, Vue and his family sought exile in Thailand. They stayed in the refugee center camp Ban Vinai along with other war-torn refugees from Laos. In 1985, they immigrated to the US. He worked in chicken farming in Arkansas before moving to Minnesota in 2012. ∆

*** 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 is available upon request.