Lapthe C. Flora promoted to Brigadier General
Bobo sends us the news that Lapthe C. Flora, a Vietnamese boat person in the 70s, has been promoted to Brigadier General in the Virginia National Guard.
Following the Communist capture of Saigon in 1975, Flora and his brothers fled the city to avoid being drafted in to the North Vietnamese military. He spent more than three years in the jungle, then fled by boat to Indonesia where he spent a year living in three separate refugee camps.
When he arrived in the U.S., he quickly learned English and finished his high school education in only three years. After high school Flora attended the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington where he earned a bachelor’s degree and commission in the U. S. Army Reserve in 1987. He later transferred to the Virginia Army National Guard where he served in every staff position within 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, including commander of the battalion.
He’s probably the first draft-dodger to be promoted to General, too. He just dodged the right draft.
You should read his speech at the link.
Category: Army News
Damn fine officer…
Congrats!!!!!!
HOOOAH !!!!!!!
Congrats
Good for him.
He was born in ’62…which at 53 and almost 30 years TIS makes him an old brigadier, too
Congratulations General. Good for you Sir.
This man should be an example of doing what it takes, adapting and overcoming the odds.
Way to go.
I agree wholeheartedly.
I admit that when I first saw this thread, I thought little of it. Big deal. But then I read his speech. Man, was I wrong. It is one of the best speeches I have ever read. If you haven’t read it, do so. You will want to stand up and cheer.
I went and read his speech.
You are correct. I would only add this ought to be required reading in the high-schools and colleges everywhere.
But the libtards would only say he has been brainwashed.
“I would only add this ought to be required reading in the high-schools and colleges everywhere.” I’d make it grade schools and high schools. By the time kids are in college, if they don’t know, they’ll never know. It did my heart good to read it.
Everyone once in a while a college student begins to think for themselves – if they’re lucky. It certainly wouldn’t hurt (although some may need to go suck their thumbs in their “safe places”).
But I’ll go with adding the grade schools. Teach’m early & often.
I read it. This paragraph floored me:
“To our veterans, especially the Vietnam Veterans of America and Vietnam Veterans of the Republic of Vietnam, to you all….we owe a great debt, one infinitely larger than can ever be repaid. My fellow veterans, you are guardians of peace, a bulwark of liberty and the beacon of light for those in dark places. Your devotion to duty and dedication to serve your fellow men has inspired me and thousands of my fellow Vietnamese-Americans to follow in your footsteps since our arrival in this great country. The universal cry for freedom we are seeing in the world today is in no small part due to the example you set on those distant battlefields.”
Yes, this should be required reading in any historical account of that war.
The dog story had me going, then I read this- gotta step out for a while……..
Congratulations to BGen Flora!
Y’done good, Sir!
Wow deja vu!
I served with a Laotian refugee with damn near the same story. At least with regards to their escape from communism, three years in a refugee camp, and learning English. He joined the Army after high school in 1989. He is still in the reserves today in Iowa as an E-7. He served in the Panama invasion, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
I wonder what my friend and men like General Flora think of our millennial generation….
He was my boss in Bosnia. It was quite a rotation and included (then MAJ) BG Blake Ortner, CG, 29th ID; (then MAJ) BG Walt Mercer, ATAG, VA ARNG; (then MAJ) BG Lapthe Flora, ATAG SI; and (then Majuri) Prikaatinkenraali (BG) Mikko Heiskanen, Chief Information and Cyber Defence Officer, Finnish Defence Forces (my other boss).
He actually came and talked to us a couple of months ago. He left some of the more gruesome details out of this speech, but one thing that stuck out to me then was that during the three years he spent in the jungle, he ate everything and anything he could find or catch… except humans.
Stories such as his get me right in the gut. And give me hope that there may still be hope for this country of ours.
Wow. Just. Wow. I am awestruck, impressed, and speechless.
Maybe Jonn will post that speech of General Flora’s in a thread all its own. It would give it more attention–the attention it truly deserves.
I deployed to Kosovo with him when he was an LTC. He’s an amazing person with an amazing story! He’s also a badass, but at the same time one of the kindest, nicest people you will ever meet!
SO proud to know him!
Congrats. But 1st Battalion is no 3rd Battalion.
Oh wait, we gave the world General Ortner. (The O in TSO is “Ortner”)
Thank you for giving us Ortner…I, for one, really appreciate it…
One squared away patriot. Well done, general. And well done, also, to his employer, who allowed him to pursue his military career during his employment with them. They did the right thing by him. Damn well done.
Lapthe and Mikko worked for me in Bosnia, among a group of what I called my Iron Majors. All excelled with 3 GOs and 4 COLs coming out of that group. All were well derserved promotions and any success I had later in my career was because of soldiers like Lapthe. Can’t wait to see him get another star.
(Which means you worked for me, too, Bobo
And
“The Iron Majors” sounds like a great title for a book about a period of which most Americans know very little regarding American military involvement.
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