 Back in the 70s, Laos was still considered a communist country and they had so much civil unrest in that area that my dad just felt like it was better if we just went ahead and fled. My name is Lieutenant Colonel Noy Bory Boone-Holbrook. I am the commander for the 41st Civil Support Team here in Louisville, Kentucky. I have been in the military service for 30 years this year. Guards up and down that coast knew my dad as a fisherman. I guess one night it was time to go and my dad just acted like he was fishing. Nobody really questioned that and then my dad knew exactly where to go and that's how we ended up in a refugee camp. So when you're in the refugee camp what they do is they write on chalk and they write your name and there's a number that's associated with you as an individual and then you as a family unit and then they're just waiting. You're waiting for a family to sponsor you. Late April of 1980 landed in California and then took a flight from California into Chicago. Been a journey ever since. The way of the Laotians you typically already arranged marriage and set up and then there's really no future pass grade school pretty much. I was a junior in high school and the first recruiter that actually showed up in my doorstep was a National Guard recruiter. I offered a lot of things as far as like free tuition for in-state school and and so I went ahead and I took the opportunity. I signed up in 1992 and then I didn't officially transfer to the Kentucky National Guard until I think 1996-1997. It's ironic because the Kentucky Guard I can honestly say that Kentucky Guard has wonderful leadership. I mean great leadership that says a lot about the state and so I think that's probably what made me hang around the diversity as far as coming to work with other people of different backgrounds and it's almost like a challenge when you work with people who don't have the same either educational background or experiences that you do. The cohesion is a lot of what Kentucky gave me. You know like we're all here and the biggest thing is that you know when challenges come our way it's not it's not about how many times you you fall it's about getting up and doing the right thing but it's also bringing a sense of unity and to get something done in a common goal I don't know if that's cheesy it's not cheesy so as long as you stay true to yourself and making sure that you you keep within those the boundaries of what you're given I mean worlds you're oyster you know