Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
3:05 | Sar Phouthasack has some pointed words for those considering an overseas war. He should know. He lost his home country Laos to the communists during one.
Keywords : Sar Phouthasack Laos Vietnam
Sar Phouthasack was a busy man. He not only ran the commando school, the communications, and the repair shop, he had to shuttle back and forth to the front lines almost daily. In the secret war in Laos, his unit was well known as the best and they were frequently called on to go to the aid of others as they did at Khe Sanh.
His father had served with French paratroopers at Dien Bien Phu. Sar Phouthasack remembers playing around the air base there as a child. He and his mother and brother were sent home to Laos before the famous battle. By the time he was eighteen, Sar was training with his father in the CIA backed Special Guerrilla Units.
The CIA offered to send Sar Phouthasack to Special Forces training and the young Laotian jumped at the chance. His father had been a paratrooper and it was his dream to follow in his footsteps. It was a long two years, not just jump school but leadership and medical training. He was among the first in his class to be deployed.
After his special forces training Sar Phouthasack was taken by two CIA operatives in plainclothes to a headquarters set up in an ordinary house in Laos. They soon moved to Thailand, where a US air presence was building. The main task of the Laotian Special Guerrilla Unit was to operate road watch teams on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
There was no contact with Team G. The road watch team along the Ho Chi Minh Trail had gone silent, no radio contact. Sar Phouthasack was part of the CIA operation that put the teams in the field and he was the volunteer who parachuted into North Vietnam to locate the missing men.
He was a commando in a secret CIA directed special forces unit, but he was also a man who met a woman and he wanted to get married. Sar Phouthasack got his time off for nuptials but it was cut short when an order came down to move the unit from Thailand back into Laos.
The Paris Peace Accords brought immediate changes to the war in Laos. All of the CIA backed Special Guerrilla Units were absorbed into the Royal Lao Army. Sar Phouthasack was sent to Vientiane where he started another secret assignment monitoring enemy radio transmissions.
The Paris Peace Accords meant that the Pathet Lao and the Royal government were going to participate in a power sharing regime. Sar Phouthasack says there was just one problem, the communists did not disarm and kept on fighting.
As the Pathet Lao continued to hammer Lao government forces, Sar Phouthasack had to move his secret listening post from Vientiane to Thailand. He was starting to be concerned about his family, so he asked his boss about going with them to America.
Recruited by the CIA, Sar Phouthasack served bravely in the Special Guerrilla Units during the Vietnam War in Laos and Thailand. Eventually, he had to concede defeat to the communists and move his family to the United States. He has some heartfelt words for his new countrymen.
Since he was recruited by the CIA for the secret war in Laos, Sar Phouthasack, and the thousands of others who had to flee to the United States, are not eligible for health care from the VA. One excuse is that they lack a simple piece of paperwork.
Sar Phouthasack is still working, volunteering on behalf of the Laotian war veterans who are living in the United States. He has warm words for his new country.
