HMONG ABC

Lee Lue and Classmates

Photo, 16"x24"
by John Willheim

Lee Lue, front row and second from the left, was one of the first five Hmong men to learn how to fly an aircraft in 1965. In six months of training in Thailand, Lee Lue graduated with Vang Toua to become the first two Hmong men to fly a fighing T-28 aircraf. In his flying career of less than two years, Lee Lue flew over 5,000 combat missions. He was known to be the bravest and the most accurate in bombing targets. When Lao, Thai and American fighter pilots missed their enemy targets, Lee Lue always blew them out of existence.