A Fallen American Hero, Kham Xiong
By Noah Vang, HT Associate Editor
This disbelief became more of a reality when the family flew to Texas to participate in the Memorial Services the following week.
"We wanted to go see if the shooting was real," Tong Chor says.
On Nov. 9. Tong Chor and Panou flew to Texas to be with their daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.
At the service, Pres. Barack Obama spoke to the victims’ families and the nation.
"Neither this country nor the values that we were founded upon could exist without men and women like these 13 Americans," says Obama to the people at the memorial service. "Their life's work is our security and the freedom that we too often take for granted.
"Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—that is their legacy."
During their private session meeting with Obama, the president extends his condolence to the victims’ families.
No body knew this situation was to happen and that his administration will look into the security issue from the shooting and how it occurred, Tong Chor recalls the president’s words to the family.
He says the president is proud of their family’s military service. He goes on, “The president told us he was happy that my father and I served for the CIA and that I have two sons now in the military.”
"You have a strong family," Tong Chor remembers Obama's comments to the family.
During the family’s visit at Fort Hood, a soldier tours them to Kham’s office so that they could see the things their son was working on.
“He wanted to be an engineer,” says Tong Chor. The soldier also shows the vehicles Kham was currently putting together before being shipped to Afghanistan.
They also see Kham’s 2006 Mitsubishi Evolution car that had been at the center since the shooting. The doors are locked. There are few items he had left inside the vehicle. “There was still a water bottom along with several pictures,” the couple remembers.
Their lives ended too soon
"I don't know what to think whether he is really dead or alive," the father says. "It's too sudden."
"The sad part is that he had been taught and trained to protect and to fight, yet it's a tragedy he did not have an opportunity to protect himself at the base," says Tong Chor.
He leaves behind three children--Kayee, 4, Devon, 2 and Jonah, who is 10 months-old. But his memory lives on.
“His facial feature remains fresh in my eyes,” Panou murmers. “I miss him very much.”
What Kou Vue, a family member, recalls about Kham most was he had a great sense of humor. “He joked a lot and was a great talker," says Vue. "He will talk on and on.”
In Kham’s yearbook from Fort Knox, Ky., a comrade known as “POPS” writes, “Great to meet someone with your sense of humor. Stay loose. Enjoy Life.”
One of the soldiers that Kham befriended in boot camp flew all the way from Pennsylvania to pay his condolences to the family.
“He ripped his dog-tag off his neck and requested that we bury it with Kham’s body,” Tong Chor said. “He told us that in the short time they got to know each other, Kham became his best friend.”
Basketball, hunting and fishing were Kham’s favorite hobbies. When he was 14, Tong Chor says they went together to the woods to hunt for wild game.
“He had never shot a deer, but you knew he liked hunting,” the father adds and laughs. “Well, he was more like my bodyguard.”
Tong Chor says his son had so much to live for. He promised the family that within two years when Kham was out of the Army, he would go back to school and find work.
"He wanted to buy us a house," he shares his son's family devotion. "He wanted to take care of the rest of his younger siblings and for us not to worry about anything."
Kham was from a family of 11. He was the oldest of the sons. His two oldest sisters are married. He was born in Chiang Kham refugee camp, Thailand.
The Xiong family resettled in the United States in 1987 after living in a tattered refugee camp in Thailand. They first came to Santa Barbara, Cali., before moving to Minnesota in September 1998.
Kham graduated in 2004 from Community of Peace Academy, a St. Paul charter school. He then worked full time in a local company before enlisting himself in the Army, citing a desire to see more of the world.
"[Kham] was just a well-rounded individual with a great personality. He was very fun-loving, one who brought a smile to everyone's face he came across," says the school’s principal Tim McGowan.
According to Tong Chor, Kham and his younger brother Nelson planned to go to the Marines together. “Kham’s application was declined because he had a family,” states his father. Nelson’s was accepted.
Like Tong Chor and his father, Xia Soua Xiong, who fought alongside with the Americans during the Secret War in Laos, Kham also wanted to continue his family’s military legacy. Kham's grandfather passed away in January 2009.
"I warned him about the dangers of war," the father says, who himself served from 1970 to 1975 as a soldier in GM 24, a marine regiment commanded by Lt. Col. Moua Gao in Laos. He was only 13-years-old when he joined the war efforts.
Prior to enlisting in the Army and being sent to his boot camp training at the 194th Armored Brigade in Fort Knox, Kham married Shoua, his high school sweetheart.
Kham was proud of his military service. "He wanted his children to tell others that they have a 'Soldier Daddy'," Tong Chor recalls. “That was a nickname his kids called him.”
Despite the dangers of going to war, going to Afghanistan was something that motivated Kham. His family says Kham was also eager to meet his younger brother Nelson who was currently stationed there. Because of the tragedy, Nelson is home now until Kham’s funeral service is completed before returning to Afghanistan.
Panou worries about Nelson. She strongly voices that she doesn’t want her children to join the military because she doesn’t want this to happen again.
Kham had purchased life insurance for himself in case he did not come back from his deployment. He listed me as one of the beneficiaries, says the father.
“If I were to be gone, please love my children and take care of them,” Tong Chor says from the vivid conversation he had with Kham.
To Robert Xiong, the third youngest son, his older brother was a role model. Robert planned to enlist and join Kham at Fort Hood, but now it is too late.
When it comes to war, there is a price to pay. And Tong Chor knows this well from his combat experience in Laos. He has seen many casualties. He knows that the worse thing that it could happen is death.
"Many of my cousins died from the war," he says.
He describes Kham’s willingness to serve as brave. “Kham said it was his duty to his country,” the father says. “He was fearless about going to war.”
The other 12 victims killed by Hasan at Ford Hood were Mike Cahill, Maj. L. Eduardo Caraveo, Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow, Capt. John Gaffaney, Spc. Frederick Greene, Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, Sgt. Amy Krueger, Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, Pfc. Michael Pearson, Captain Russell Seager, Pvt. Francheska Velez and Lt. Col. Juanita Warman.
Kham was the third Hmong soldier to have been killed in the military service since the War in Iraq began in 2003. The other two were Army Spc. Thai Vue, of Willows, Calfi., who was killed in Iraq in June 2004, and Army Spc. Qixing Lee, of Minneapolis, who died on August 2006 from an improvised explosive device detonated in Taji, Iraq.
The Xiong family has arranged a 3-day funeral service for Kham beginning on Nov. 28-30 at the Legacy Funeral Home located at 1310 Frost Avenue, Maplewood 55109. A memorial fund also has been established for the Kham’s family. For more information, contact the family’s spokesperson Songtou Xiong at 651-308-9621.