>>13478467
>Xommvaxai = Kham?
. Xommvaxai, who is currently deployed in Washington State and active in the U.S. Army as a cavalry scout.
>>13478467
>who was killed Nov. 5, 2009,
Obituary has Xomm as currently deployed so maybe some other relative or obit is wrong
Kham See __Xiong __remembered as devoted soldier, son, husband and father
By Tom Laventure (Asian American Press) | November 17, 2009
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The community this week is mourning the death of U.S. Army Private First Class Kham Xiong, 23,of St. Paulwho was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, in Fort Hood, Texas.
Kham See was killed during the horrific shooting that took place the early afternoon of November 5th at Fort Hood. As a family and community ready to bury a young husband and father of three, they struggle to understand what possessed Nidal Hasan, the man charged with taking Kham See’s life along with 12 others, and wounding 31 other military and civilian personnel.
Chayee Lee, brother in law, and the family representative and spokesperson, is married to Kham See’s younger sister, and says she and the nine other siblings are obviously very upset and in denial about their elder brother’s death, the eldest son and third oldest in the family.
Lee said the family was in a sense prepared to handle news that Kham or his younger brother serving in the Marines had been wounded or lost while serving on hazardous duty. They were totally unprepared for Kham See’s murder at the hands of a U.S. military officer and in the relative safety of a stateside duty station while in a processing center.
Lee said the family does not mind the media attention but just want to get across “what a great son he was; what a great uncle and cousin, sibling, husband and father.” He said that several of Kham See’s friends from high school and Basic Training and Fort Hood have contacted the family for support and many plan to attend funeral as well.
“He was loved by everybody and he always had a great smile on him,” said Lee. “He could change people moods from sad to happy instantly. He was happy and warm.”
The last job Lee recalled that Kham held before enlisting was a forklift driver. When he wasn’t working, Lee said Kham would always want to go fishing. He went to Basic Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and although he was schooled as a combat engineer, Lee said he was switching over to heavy artillery.
Kham See’s spouse Shoua was due to return to Minnesota on Thursday. Lee said the Army assigned a liaison to both the family in St. Paul and to Shoua in Texas. The two reportedly were in constant communication with each other regarding the memorial service and have been very supportive to the family.
Another brother in-law, Tria Chang, said Kham See moved his family to Fort Hood last July, and worries for the children. The eldest will need to understand that their father is gone. The youngest will not have any memory of their father, he added.
“They were a close family,” said Chang. “There was a lot of love. They did everything together.
“He saw the military as a way to provide for his family,” he added. “His parents aren’t rich and he comes from a poor background.”
Chang said that Shoua’s four sisters flew immediately to Texas to help care for the kids and support her. The military paid for one airfare and the other three paid their own way.
He said Kham See’s parents are now working to help Shoua and her family in this difficult transition, to find out her wishes and return together to Minnesota.
The parents also want to know the details of what happed to their son, he added. The family values military service, he said, and now worry for their other son learned of Kham See’s death on the phone with them while serving as a Marine in Afghanistan. He reportedly fainted and a fellow Marine came on the line to say that they were taking him to medical.
Song Tou Xiong, vice-president of Xiong United of Minnesota, assisted the family with coordinating funeral arrangements and acting as a liaison where possible.
“This is very sad,” said Song Tou Xiong. “We love him (Kham) because he was a good person and sacrificed his life to protect our country and the American people.”
Kham See will be have a public wake on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 28-29 at Legacy Funeral Home, 1310 Frost Avenue in Maplewood. Public officials and community leaders are scheduled to pay their respects and speak on Saturday between noon and 5:00 p.m. A full military burial is scheduled for sometime early Monday afternoon at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.