The government soldiers came to our city and took all of the people who were capable of fighting. I was one of those. We were given M-16s, 200 rounds of ammunition and grenades. We hiked to the communist controlled mountains near Vietnam. We stayed there for one month, and then we were replaced by another group of soldiers from the city. It took us 3 nights to get back down to our base camp, a placed we called Tambdin. There were 12 houses inside the camp. A total of 27 men came down from the mountains to the camp. There was not enough food and hospital care. I remained in Tambdin with the other 17 men for one week.

         Later, 100 men joined us. By 9:00 P.M all of the men had arrived. At 3:30 A.M fighting broke out in the camp. A lot of people were hurt and a lot died. One of my good friends died in this battle. His body was blown away from the waist down. He was hurt at 7:00 A.M and died an hour later. His last words to me were, “Tell my wife to take care and I love her.” All together about 17 people died.

         At 8:00 A.M we called in the U.S jets and 2 Laotian planes to come and help us. They flew from Udon, Thailand. They bombed the enemy’s position. After the bombing the shots ceased. We stayed in the camp 3 more days. Of our original group of 18 men, 3 had been killed, and the other 3 were injured too badly to even walk. So 12 of us walked back to the city. We walked at night to avoid running into people who lived in the mountains. Those mountains people had been told by the communist that they would be given food and guns if they killed the soldiers that walked through there.

         Once, there was so much rain that it was impossible to walk at night. So we found whatever shelter we could and waited until the morning to begin walking again. In the morning, we were covered with leaches! Nobody cared because we were all more worried about being shot by the mountain people. That day we walked for 4 hours then waited for night to come so we could continue walking.

         When I arrived in the city they didn’t allow me to see my wife. Later, they allowed me to visit my family for a week and I had to resume to the fighting. After spending 3 days in the base camp 47 soldiers were sent into the mountains again. We were out there for 9 days. We lost control of our position because we did not have enough people.

         The men in our group had virtually no training. They were just given the guns and were told to fight. They had to be watched constantly to keep them from deserting. When the fighting broke out some of the soldiers sprawled out on the ground, crying, shaking, and shouting. When I think about the situation now, it is quite funny but we weren’t laughing then.  In the heat of the battle, I would run over to those men and quickly teach them how to shoot to protect themselves. I told them to be quite or they would die faster. During that battle 3 or 4 deserted. Two men and myself became separated from the main group. We were lost! No food, no blankets, or shelter. We were forced to eat bugs and anything we could to survive.

         We made it to the river and decided to return to the city. I told the other two men how to hide under dead tree trunks. We then got into the river and held on to the tree trunks from underneath the water. We used hollow bamboo tubes to breath through while we were under water for half an hour. Once we were out of the water we continued towards the city at night, which took us 7 days to return.

         We stayed in the city for 3 months then our next mission was to take care of the bridge, after that we were sent to another place. One time we were out looking for food quite far from our camp. There were 3 of us together. A group of communists were waiting for us. We first heard some sounds and then about 3 seconds later we heard the gunfire from their AK-47s. I was hit above the right eye but I felt no pain and there was very little blood so I continued to fight. After the skirmish my friends told me that I was actually hurt very badly. I reached up to my face and felt an open wound gushing blood from eyebrow on to my cheek. Then I immediately blacked out. My friends had to stitch the wound up without any medication.

         I was hospitalized for 3 months. My eye swelled up so much that I couldn’t see anything for an entire month. When we left the hospital I was released from the army and I returned to my family.

         I remained a soldier in the city. My job was to train younger soldiers how to fight and use the guns.

         In 1974, the Americans left Vietnam and the communist took over Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. We didn’t know anything about this new type of government. We had to wait to see what the new government was there to do.

         They made new money called “kip.” They robbed us by making us turn in our old money and giving us very little in return. The former soldiers were disarmed of their weapons. Every day they had meetings, which we were forced to attend. At the meetings they discussed their new government plans. At this time many people were leaving the country. They went to France, Germany, Thailand, the U.S.A, and other countries.

         The government officials forced the people in the city to go to the mountains and work. They gave us little, and barely any food. At night they chained us together to keep us from escaping to Thailand.

         Many people became sick from the mosquitoes. They also died from diseases, lack of medicine, and starvation. They dug a huge hole in the ground for the jail.  People who did not listen to the authorities were thrown into the hole.

         There was no pay for the work we did. People were forced to tell the officers about all of their possessions; the number of ducks, chicken, buffalos, and rice they had. There was an approved market place where we could buy and sell. The communist took more then half of the sales. If you were caught not paying enough to the government, you were placed in jail.

         Many of the people drowned while trying to escape to Thailand by swimming across the Mekong River. Those who did make it were forced to leave Thailand by a boat. Robbers came to them at the sea and would take anything they had.

         Many Hmong people were killed as they tried to leave the country. We saw soldiers kill people for no reason. Some people tried to cross the Mekong River using plastic bags they had blown up for a floatation device. They soldiers would see the bags and shoot the people. At times, there were many bodies floating down the river.

I had a good friend in the communist government. He came to me and told me to leave the country. I had 4 children at the time. So we made the decision to try and leave Laos.

For a month and a half we were trying to gather enough wood to make a raft. We hid the wood in different places around the Mekong River. Some days we were able to gather wood, other days people were watching and we weren’t able to gather anything. Finally after this period of time we had enough wood to build a raft.        

Then when were ready to escape. We left our home at 2:00 A.M. I took a little bucket of rice and a blanket for my kids. We took 700 Thai bat ( $28 US) and 25 silver coins ($10 US). My wife also had a thin necklace. We went far from the town to the river. My wife couldn’t swim so I told her to sit on the raft. She was too scared so she hung on the side of the raft. Our sons and daughters stayed on the raft. I pushed and paddled the raft to the other side. It only took about 30-45 minutes to cross to Thailand. We stayed and waited for the people who told us to wait for the Thai officers. Then the same exact people came back with others so they could rob us. They took everything we had.

At about 11:00 A.M the policemen took us to an office. They wrote down our names, birthdays, and other information. They held us in a cell with 4 other families. Ponepisai was the name of the jail area. As the head of the family, I had to stay in jail at night because they were afraid I would escape. My family slept outside. They let me go in the daytime to be with my family. We stayed in this jail area for 5 days. All together there were about 2,000 people.

Some of us had blankets others did not. They gave us food only twice a day. My family had nothing so they couldn’t take anything from us. They said we had to have money to get out of jail. Because we didn’t have anything we couldn’t get out. As the days went on more people were arriving from Laos. They then transferred the families that had been there longer into a refugee camp.

I made a small bamboo hut for my family and we lived in it for 7 months. The authorities sent many people out of the area we were at because there were too many people.                 

We were then moved to a second place. We lived in a small room in the building. We stayed there for a year and 5 months. People were leaving and going to lots of different countries including Canada, Germany, France, China, Argentina and others. We thought a lot about the best country. We prayed for heavenly father to help us decide which country to go to. At the time we were Buddhists. There were catholic and protestant churches there. There were different kinds of food but still wasn’t enough. We made friends with the person over the security of the camp so he would help us. We had to pay him money to help us get out of the camp.         

         My work was digging the ground and gathering bamboo. We made 20 bat  a day ($0.70 US) It was not much but we didn’t care. We needed the money to buy food and water. They had water but the water was dirty.

         My wife and I had different last names. In Laos it is not the custom for wives to change their names after marriage. This caused a big problem in applying to leave.

         Some bad people burned down the building where we were living.  We go our kids out but we lost everything else. At this time there were not enough buildings to house the refugees. So they started sending out more and more people. I prayed felt that the U.S was the best place for me. When I was asked where in the U.S I wanted to go, I said, “Anywhere, mountains, or sea, anywhere was ok.” John the man who helped families leave the camp, said we were one of the lucky families because they needed to move people out of the camp.

         We waited everyday for them to call out our names so we could get on a bus. Finally they called our names. On that day there were 10 buses. There were so many people we filled them all. We were on our way to Bangkok. Some money had no money, no sponsors, and no relatives. We stayed in a jail for a day when we arrived in Bangkok. Some of the people had to stay for weeks, months, and even years.

         Before getting on the bus to go to the Bangkok airport they told us to stand in line.  We had to wait from 5:00 P.M until midnight. The officers got mad at us even if we left the line to go to the restroom. When the buses arrived at midnight about 600 people went to the Bangkok airport.

          About an hour after arriving some people checked to see who could speak English. Nobody knew how to speak English. There were no schools that taught English were we lived. They came to my family and I and asked, “Do you know how to speak English?”  When we replied, “No…” They asked, “Then why are you going to the U.S.A?” We told them we didn’t know. They told us that we had to join a small group of 4 families in a small room.

         My family and my friend’s family with one child were sent to a small room. There were also 3 Hmong families in the same room. They told us that all of us in this small room were sick and had a disease and that we would be sent back to Laos.  I still don’t understand why they said this. I think they were putting on a show for others.

         The next morning they took us to the airplane. We had to walk a long ways outside to get to the big airplane. My family was the first to board the airplane. They told me to smile for a photo. But I couldn’t smile because they had lied to us about being sick and I was really worried. They told us to sit far from the door near the restroom. We were told to sit down and stay together. They took many pictures for their book. They even took pictures of us in a chair with our mouths open as we were yawning. When the plane filled with people we took off for Thailand.

         We then landed in Okinawa, Japan to refuel. Nobody was aloud to live the plane. We were then on our way to the San Francisco airport. While we were on the plane they gave us oranges to eat. My son Sunty didn’t want to eat his because it was the first he had ever had.  Some people in the airport took his orange and threw it away. He cried and cried, I had to tell him they would give him another one to help him stop crying.

         They sent us to a hotel close to the San Francisco Bridge. We had plenty of food, water, and a room to stay in. There were about 400 to 500 people stayed in the hotel.

         Some people had sponsors in California. We had been told we were going to Chicago, but we didn’t have a sponsor yet. They gave us a map of the U.S and Illinois was outlined in red. The agent that was helping us was making a lot of phone calls to seek a sponsor for our family.

         We could not speak English. We had no money, gold, silver, clothes, or blankets. The government authorities gave us one change of clothing.

         Then they told us there had been a change of plans, we were no longer going to Chicago, and we were going to Utah. They told us that a man named Steve Nelson had chosen to sponsor our family. He lived in Clinton, Utah. I told them fine, anywhere in the U.S.A is okay. So on February 27th, 1980, we flew into Salt Lake City. We got there and had to wait for our sponsors to arrive. An hour later, he arrived with his wife Jane, and 5 children. Steven and Jane hugged everyone in my family. I could not say anything but I felt very happy. They took us to their van and they drove us to the oriental food store. They asked us many things we couldn’t answer. They bought us some rice and other things. Then we made our way to their home.

         Steve’s home was not the same as the homes in our country. There was carpet, TVs, and other things new to us. I felt scared. I didn’t want to touch anything. I was afraid my kids would break something in his house. If the broke something I had no idea how I would pay for it. They told us not to worry, and they would take care of us. They taught us how to wash and dry our clothes and do other things at home. We also experienced snow for the first time. We went outside and looked at all the white stuff covering everyone’s yard. We picked it up and felt how cold it was in our hands.

         After 2 or 3 days my sponsor took me to the store. They held up items and pointed and asked, “Do you want this?” I shook my head because I had no money. They said they would pay for everything. I didn’t understand why they would do that for us.

         Later on, Steve called the church branch. Some people from the church brought over pots, pans, and clothes. They explained to me in my own language that Steve in a Mormon. He didn’t drink coffee, beer, or whiskey. Later my whole family attended the Mormon Church. I went 2 or 3 times. The bishop found missionaries who could speak Thai. My wife and I spoke Thai too so we were able to understand them. Their names were Tony and Larry.

         We stayed inn our sponsor’s home for a few weeks until Steve found a home for us to rent. Some church people painted and fixed up the house and cut the grass. Then the missionaries from the church came to teach us. I learned about the Mormon Church and they baptized my family and me. After I was baptized, I went to church every Sunday. Later, I told my Laotian friends about the church. They starting come and we organized the Laotian 86th branch.

         My sponsor helped me and my family find my first job in the U.S.A. They asked me what I had done before. I told them I was a soldier and that I could do home repairs and make furniture. So they helped my find a job at a furniture manufacturing company called Hurco Industries in Ogden, Utah. When I started working there, they paid me $3.15 an hour. The job was good but there were man problems. I had no car. I had no friends. For the first week Steve drove me to and from work. Then he taught me how to ride a bus. It was not easy. Maybe 2 times I missed my bus stop and I had to walk back a long ways to my house. It took about a month to learn how to ride the bus.

         Our rent was $210 and our food was expensive. I was not making enough money. One of my friends told me about welfare and food stamps. I told my sponsor about it and told him we needed more money. He said he would help me take care of it. So he talked to the bishop and the bishop gave me a paper so I could go shopping in the Mormon store. I could buy anything I wanted there without any money.

         After working at Hurco for about 6 weeks before my sponsor found me another job at the Hill Air Force base as a janitor. They paid me $4.10 an hour. With that raise in salary I had enough to buy my own food. Shopping at the Mormon store was nice but they didn’t have oriental food, so it was better for us to buy our own food.

          I still didn’t have a car or anything. I walked to work when my sponsor didn’t take me. Then he got a bicycle for me. The bike was fine when the weather was good, but sometimes it was a bad snow blizzard and I could not see the road. I had to push my bike through the snow to get to work. When summer came, my sponsor helped me buy my first car. We got a loan from the bank and bought a car for $1,500. I was scared to drive at first, and I was worried because I didn’t have enough money.

         One foggy morning in October on my way to work, there was black ice on the road. I was only going 15 MPH when I lost control. A lady who was going much faster hit my car. My car slide off the road it was totally ruined. When my sponsor saw the car he couldn’t believe that I was not hurt. He said that Heavenly Father helped me and protected me because I was working so hard to take care of my family. I was not given a ticket because it was not my fault. The lady’s insurance company paid me $2,300 for the accident.

         My sponsor Steve not only helped our family. He helped another Laotian family whose sponsor did not take good care of them. He sponsored 2 of my cousin’s families and he continued to help others.

         I continued to work hard as the years went by. I earned enough money to rent a five-bedroom home in Clearfield, Utah. I lived there for 8 years and saved enough money on a new home in Clinton, Utah.  I then became a U.S citizen and I’m very happy to live in the U.S.A. I would like to stay here. I have so much freedom here compared to what I went through in Laos. Someday I would like to go and visit my relatives but this is my home now.