Quicksand, guns and hamburgers

I'm Lukas Seely aka Luke Keutla most people know from me for being a comedian and hear about my jokes about being Asian and living in Montana. As people have always wondered how my family ended up in Montana, there is a part of my life that most people don't know............I'm the youngest of 6 six kids and I'm the only one born in America. My family is from Laos, a country in Southeast Asia in between Thailand and Vietnam. 30 yrs ago my family escaped the communist government in Laos to become free and live their American Dream in the USA.

Through out the next week I'm going to share my family's story and our journey back to Laos and the experiance through my eyes as an Asian American who has never been to his homeland and about my family going back to help a my dad's village of children in need.

To keep you up to speed I'll fill you in on everything and here is how it started.........

Back in the 60's and 70's the U.S government was secretly putting US troops in Laos as a way to try and stop Communism in South East Asia. There the U.S troops they were teaching Lao people how to fight with guns and was trying to help the Lao people over throw the Royal Communist Government. After a failed attempt the U.S pulled its troops from Laos without giving the Lao people a real reason for leaving........the problem.......any Laotian person who sided with the U.S Army was now considered an enemy of the Royal Government....this included my parents.

The Royal Government was taking all Laotians who were involved with the U.S Army and putting them in work camps, taking fathers, sons, and mothers and killing them for opposing the Lao Royal Government. All the Lao people were waiting for the mighty American Army to come back and finish off the Royal Government...but this was never the case.

One by one the Royal Government was killing officers involved, taking families and putting them into concentration camps to brain wash the Lao people into thinking Communism was great. My family was put into a camp, my dad....sent to work outside the camp and only being able to see my family maybe once a month....I was not born yet.

One night my parents decided to make a deathly escape from the camp and make a run for Thailand. If they were to get caught trying to escape, they would be killed on sight. At the time The Keutla Family (my family) consisted of my mom (Khanthaly) , my dad (Sisavath) and my siblings, Lucky, Leh, Tobee, Quito and infant Khuanmany.

My sister Khuanmany was only 2yrs old and bringing her would increase the chances of my family being caught and killed if she were to cry. So my parents decided to leave her with my aunt and uncle with a promise to return for her in the future if they make it.

On a full moon night, my family sneaked under the fence and made a dash for the river were a boat awaited to take them to Thailand. As they were running they could hear guards yelling that someone escaped and running as fast as they can my mother's foot got caught in quicksand. My dad looked at her and knew helping her would only slow they family down and rise the chance of everyone getting caught...however my dad could not leave his true love behind and helped her out of the quicksand. The thought of raising his children without his soulmate was something he could not bare, my father would have rather died by my mother's side. Soon thereafter they got on the boat and barely made it across the river to Thailand. Now thats true love mother effers!

My family was in a refugee camp in Thai, awaiting for a country to sponsor them into their country. My parents were hopeing Paris,France because they spoke french and a lot of their friends ended up there . Living in the slums of Thai my parents were very anxious to leave and try to create a new life for their families.....soon there after a church named St.Luke's in Billings,MT said they would sponsor a family and The Keutla family was next in line.......ok if your confused as why I go by Lukas Seely and Keutla.....its because Seely is my stage name which Seely is my middle name and its the first part of my dad's name and the last part of my moms name.....make sense now? Good glad your with me...if your not then you might not be smart enough to continue reading this story.

June 17th 1981, my family arrived in the USA! and soon after my family got a surprise...me Luke Seely Keutla, the first born in on US soil and they only one to have an American name. Yep im the youngest, the first citizen (I got a birth certificate to prove it, unlike someone unless we know) When my parents look at me they see freedom, a new life, and a little monkey who pooped a lot as an infant. To be continued.....