Chai Ying Moua served in the CIA-funded guerilla army of General Vang Pao (pictured here courtesy Oregon State) and escaped into the jungle of Laos after the communist victory in April 1975.
Moua and his wife Maivang Her have been hiding out there, surviving on anything that was edible. Moua believed that General Pao would someday come back and liberate his country to restore democracy.
That dream finally ended in January 2011 when the General died.
The Sacramento Bee reports that Moua and his wife this weekend landed in Sacramento, CA to reunite with his family for the first time in 40 years.
He also met six nieces for the first time.
“I’m happy to be here, it has always been in the back of my mind,” said Moua, 63. “I spent 21 years in the jungles, hiding from the Communists. It was survival of the fittest, day by day.”
You can read more about this incredible reunion and the couple’s life hiding out in the jungle in the Sacramento Bee.
