Twenty Hmong Americans, many who took part in a secret covert operation in Vietnam with US serviceman, remembered their dead during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetary, reports the Fresno Bee.
“We would like to remember our friends, who lost their lives defending freedom,” said Wangyee Vang, president of the Fresno-based Lao Veterans of America Institute. “When we were all alive, we promised to remember each other.”
Hmong forces provided special assistance to CIA operatives and US Special Forces. . Philip Smith, the Washington liaison for the Lao Veterans of America, called it the “largest covert operation in U.S. history prior to the war in Afghanistan.”
As many as 30,000 died in the secret war. Many of those that survived have resettled in the Central Valley of California and in Minnesota.
You can read a lot more about their mission in the Fresno Bee.
