Although Hmong and Laotian people weren’t official members of the US Military during The Vietnam War, State Representative Shae Sortwell of Two Rivers believes they deserve to be recognized.
He’s created legislation that allows some of the people in the minority groups to get a military ID logo on their driver’s license.
After the war, the groups feared that the new Vietnamese government would come after them because they supported the United State mission of having the country become a Democracy. Sortwell says many moved to Wisconsin and the Twin Cities.
“I think it could be close to a third of the Hmong that moved to the United States coming out of Vietnam that moved to the areas,” he explained to Seehafer News. “There are a lot of people in the Manitowoc area, Sheboygan area, and the Green Bay area with a very high concentration of people there.”
The was supposed to be an amendment in another bill but it didn’t make it out of the Wisconsin Senate, and why Sortwell is doing this as a separate bill.
He says the benefits of having a Military ID could allow Hmong and Laotians to get a discount at many places and would bring support for them on Veterans Day.
Sortwell says he believes there should be enough votes to pass the bill in the future.
