Xai Nou Vang, former Special Guerilla Unit Captain and bodyguard to General Vang Pao, joined General Vang Pao's troops to escape poverty—the same choice that many Hmong men and boys made. In 1975, the CIA ordered General Vang Pao to make a clandestine escape from his headquarters in Long Tieng to Thailand, leaving behind Xai Nou and thousands of his Special Guerilla Unit soldiers.