Return From Exile, and Death
On 20 August 1973, as the communists were beginning to triumph in their war to conquer Laos, Thao Ma returned from exile heading a convoy of 60 trucks. The Thao Ma column quickly took over Wattay Air Base. Thao Ma and six other pilots launched a T-29 strike against army headquarters. However, while they were airborne, the Royal Lao Army retook the airfield in a counterattack. Thao Ma was shot down as he was landing. He survived the crash, and was executed after his surrender. He was 42 years of age.
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Famous quotes containing the words return and/or death:
“East and west on fields forgotten
Bleach the bones of comrades slain,
Lovely lads and dead and rotten;
None that go return again.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)
“And yet the sun pardons our voices still,
And berries in the hedge
Through all the nights of rain have come to the full,
And death seems like long hills, a range
We ride each day towards, and never reach.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)