Pastor Y Hin Nie, 75, preaches the gospel from the comfort of his church in the US state of North Carolina.
But as a young man, he survived nearly two decades in the jungle, giving sermons to his comrades fighting Vietnamese troops long after the war had ended – his AK-47 never far from his side.
On the run and cut off from the world, Hin Nie and his unit of insurgents foraged for food and hunted for tiger skins to pay the Khmer Rouge.
His “forgotten army” did not give up arms until 1992, after Hin Nie negotiated their freedom.
The first time Y Hin Nie nearly died was on the night of 30 January 1968, when the Vietcong, fighting for the Communist North in Vietnam, launched a massive attack, firing barrages of rockets on US-held areas under the cover of Tet – or New Year – celebrations.
Hin Nie, who grew up in Vietnam, was living with American Christian missionaries in Buon Ma Thuot, the…
