SJR80: Joint Resolution Text

LRB-4989/1

CMH:cjs

2019 - 2020 LEGISLATURE

2019 Senate JOINT RESOLUTION 80

December 19, 2019 - Introduced by Senators Smith, Carpenter, L. Taylor and Larson, cosponsored by Representatives Brostoff, Stuck, Tusler, Horlacher, Stubbs, Tittl and Bowen. Referred to Committee on Senate Organization.

SJR80,1,1 Relating to: declaring December 8, 2019, to be General Vang Pao Day in Wisconsin.

SJR80,1,3 Whereas, General Vang Pao was born on December 8, 1929, and died on January 6, 2011; and

SJR80,1,5 Whereas, General Vang Pao participated in the resistance efforts after the Japanese invaded and occupied French Indochina in World War II; and

SJR80,1,7 Whereas, after World War II, General Vang Pao was recruited by the French to combat the Viet Minh and the Communist Pathet Lao; and

SJR80,1,9 Whereas, General Vang Pao was the only ethnic Hmong to attain the rank of general in the Royal Lao Army; and

SJR80,1,12 Whereas, General Vang Pao commanded the Royal Lao Military Region 2, a special guerrilla unit, from 1960 to 1975, with support and training from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency; and

SJR80,1,15 Whereas, General Vang Pao's army saved hundreds of American pilots whose planes were shot down in Northern Laos, protected the U.S. radar system at Phou Phathi, and stopped the communist troops from crossing the Ho Chi Minh Trail; and

SJR80,2,2 Whereas, an estimated 35,000 Hmong soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians died in Laos during the Vietnam War; and

SJR80,2,4 Whereas, General Vang Pao immigrated to the United States after the Communist Pathet Lao seized control of Laos in 1975; and

SJR80,2,7 Whereas, thousands of Hmong refugees followed in General Vang Pao's footsteps and bravely escaped persecution and repression in Laos and resettled in the United States; and

SJR80,2,10 Whereas, General Vang Pao was admired for his work in establishing a nonprofit organization called Lao Family Community to help Hmong and Lao refugee families; and

SJR80,2,13 Whereas, General Vang Pao was respected for his efforts in forming the Lao Veterans of America, Inc., for the thousands of former ethnic Laotian and Hmong veterans and their families living in the United States; and

SJR80,2,15 Whereas, General Vang Pao is revered by many in the Hmong community for his leadership and so many accomplishments; now, therefore, be it

SJR80,2,18 Resolved by the senate, the assembly concurring, That the Wisconsin Legislature commemorates the life and service of General Vang Pao and declares December 8, 2019, to be General Vang Pao Day in Wisconsin.

SJR80,2,19 (End)