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Minnesota subcommittee passes bill to formally recognize Hmong Special Guerrilla Unit veterans
Summary
The Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs passed Senate File 568 to expand the state definition of 'veteran' to include members of the Hmong Special Guerrilla Unit (SGU) who fought alongside U.S. forces in Laos; advocates and two SGU veterans gave emotional testimony about service and loss.
Senate File 568 to expand Minnesota’s definition of “veteran” to include members of the Hmong Special Guerrilla Unit passed the Senate subcommittee on Veterans Affairs and was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Veterans, Broadband, and Rural Development after testimony from community leaders and SGU veterans.
Advocates told the committee that Hmong fighters acted as surrogate soldiers for U.S. operations in Laos during the Vietnam-era “secret war,” and that fewer than 1,000 SGU veterans remain in Minnesota. "If you can stand up," Lee Pao Xiong told the committee as he gestured toward aging veterans in the room. "Their numbers are dwindling. Their stories fading." Xiong…
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