Hmong General Vang Pao passed away

[idiot face]

Hmong General Vang Pao passed away recently. An interesting man with an even more interesting history...at least what little I know about it .

Any members have any experience working with the Hmong during Vietnam war era?

I wasnt even an itch in my fathers scrotum during Vietnam, but I have worked for a time with the Hmong community in Northern CA.

Very interesting culture, great people.

 

[Victor N TN]

Re: Hmong General Vang Pao passed away

From what I've read, he sounds like a really great man. I'm sure a lot of people who knew him (or knew OF him) will attend his funeral service.

Having never actually met the man, I can only guess.

 

[Bryan27]

Re: Hmong General Vang Pao passed away

Wasn't it a Hmong guy up in Wisconsin that killed all those deer hunters a few years back?

 

[dadzic]

Re: Hmong General Vang Pao passed away

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Bryan27</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Wasn't it a Hmong guy up in Wisconsin that killed all those deer hunters a few years back? </div></div>

Yes, he was from MN actually but was hunting in Wisconsin. There was a dispute over a tree stand on private property, after the verbal dispute the gunman walked off about 40 yards and opened fire on the hunters killing five instantly and wounding two others, one of the wounded victims ended up dying later from the sustained injuries. Tragic incident, the man was found guilty and if he were in one of the death penalty states he would have likely received it. Although Hmong people should not be categorized based on the actions of one individual. We have a lot of them here and the overwhelming majority are very nice people and not crazy gun wielding murderers.

 

[Bryan27]

Re: Hmong General Vang Pao passed away

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: dadzic</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Bryan27</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Wasn't it a Hmong guy up in Wisconsin that killed all those deer hunters a few years back? </div></div>

Yes, he was from MN actually but was hunting in Wisconsin. There was a dispute over a tree stand on private property, after the verbal dispute the gunman walked off about 40 yards and opened fire on the hunters killing five instantly and wounding two others, one of the wounded victims ended up dying later from the sustained injuries. Tragic incident, the man was found guilty and if he were in one of the death penalty states he would have likely received it. Although Hmong people should not be categorized based on the actions of one individual. We have a lot of them here and the overwhelming majority are very nice people and not crazy gun wielding murderers. </div></div>

I don't know anything about them really, I just remember the news articles were painting them to be a community of leaches. Not that I put much stock in the news, but from what I remember there was quite a bit of trouble with hmongs outside of that incident.

 

[dadzic]

Re: Hmong General Vang Pao passed away

You are right on that. I think it was because the media and the public in general overemphasized on the fact that it was a Hmong who shot the hunters. I remember seeing bumper stickers saying "Save a hunter, shoot a Hmong". Probably due to reactions like these there was an uproar on both sides. I guess the media sometimes likes to play the race card in order to make the story more colorful.

 

[Parallax]

Re: Hmong General Vang Pao passed away

dadzic is right.... that was Sawyer County "Up-North" East of Hayward The shooter did all that damage with an SKS carbine and the victims fired at least twice with scoped rifles at him from close range but missed. The question was always who fired first ? We'll never really know, each side blamed the other,but the jury was convinced that irregardless of who fired the first shot or at what the back shooting of some of the hunters as they fled was beyond reason.

I met Vang Pao several times, in fact almost yearly in Oshkosh where one of the Hmong Associations he sponsored is located. He had wonderful stories... and was held in awe by the Hmong Veterans and people of his era. The US Government tried to screw him by trumping up charges he was trying to overthrow the communist Government of Laos in 2007 ( so ??)... but charges were dropped in 2009 amid pressure... it's outlined on his Wiki Page.