Hog’s Exit: Jerry Daniels, the Hmong, and the CIA (Modern Southeast Asia) Paperback – May 20, 2013

A Hmong filmmaker in Fresno recommended this book to me. I wrote back to my friend and told him Gayle Morrison's book, Hog's Exit, is amazing. "Yes, you're right." I informed him. "Jerry Daniels' story is a movie/limited series waiting to happen. I also really appreciate the oral history nature of it, as one gets so many points of view that the story--and all the history surrounding it--percolates into the reader's mind in a way almost as if lived and experienced first-hand. (I am glad, however, that I'd previously read several books on the CIA's Secret War, Hmong culture, etc, as I have a good base idea of what the various oral interviewees are talking about.)"While I didn't mean for the response to my friend, thanking him for the recommendation, to sound like a review, I guess it kind of does. All that's lacking are a few choice superlatives to sum up my thoughts on the book: fascinating, revealing, engaging, and a remarkable use of a traditional Hmong funeral in Montana (for Jerry Daniels) as a storytelling/framing device (yeah, I plan to co-opt that idea!) Did I mention there is also a great mystery at the heart of this story and Jerry's untimely death? Well, there is.Read Gayle Morrison's book about Jerry Daniels, the Hmong and the CIA if you want an insider's--indeed, many insiders'--take on this complicated and little-understood chapter of U.S. and world history, and vivid insight into the struggles, culture, and nature of the remarkable Hmong people.

Part 1Growing up in a Hmong family I often heard my parents mentioned the name "Jerry" and conversations about his works and associations with Hmong in Laos. From the bits and pieces of stories about him I gathered he had made big impacts on many Hmong immigrants but never truely understood the extent of his role in the Hmong's histroy. The stories I've heard have always been positive about this guy. I am looking forward to reading this book.I hope that one day there will be another story of Jerry Daniels being told from the perspective of Hmong and how important he was to us.Part 2Recieved the book and couldn't stop putting it down. Without revealing too much about the book itself, I will say that it contains great historical events that you will not find in any American history books. The book provides great insights on a man who shall forever be a legend in Hmong's history. The documents presented were composed in such a way that most people (non-military personals) can understand. I've learned more about my people's history in Laos from this book than any other books out there. The stories are of and by the people who were there (during a time and place that was hell).I want to thank Jerry's parents for creating such a great human being. Now I know why so many Hmong adore him. Jerry, an American boy of the 1960's really grew up with the Hmong and became a member of their family.

Well worth reading for anyone who is into studying about the secret war in Laos. It is an interesting book about an interesting character. However, one must read between the lines between hero worship and the real world. One doesn't crawl into the bottle occasionally. Daniels went native and lost his way. He was a dedicated tough individual who did a lot for his country and for the Hmong, however the bottle got him not the NVA or the Lao.We need brave men like Daniels, however it appeared that he did not have anyone that he respected that tried to show him the wrong path he was on. Those who have been in combat have seen many a brave true heroes who could not come down to earth after the fight and crawl out of the bottle.Lest we forget - Semper Fi!

I don't think Jerry is the body in the seal coffin. I believe with all my heart that he is still alive and livesa comfortable life somewhere. This is call central intelligence to cover up the stench of the secret war in Laos.It was an ugly failure and it will surface on the history of war hundred years from now.

Hog's Exit is an oral history excellently done through years of painstaking research and collection and is formatted brilliantly. This is the primary work others will have to turn to in order for any new book on Jerry Daniels to be written - or, indeed, a screenplay, which is sorely needed to tell this man's story to the world. For it is men like Daniels who define the pages of American History - no different to those of Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, Sam Houston and others, who defined the sprit of the American West. Daniels was from that West and he bore that spirit to aid his country in a foreign land, and then help those people like no other when his country was willing to abandon them. It is Daniel's colleagues, friends and acquaintances who speak in this book, and it is from they that his story emerges. In a time now so removed from that Asian war, and yet with the trauma of that war still so ingrained in the American psyche, this oral history, by those there, is a must read and a valuable research tool in anyone's personal library.

I worked with Jerry both as a Smokejumper and as a covert operative in Laos for 5 years. What Gayle Morrison writes in her book is true in all respects and relates an untold story about the Laotian a portion of the Vietnam War. Essentially, a small cadre covert operatives, many of whom were former Smokejumpers, organized and fought with General Vang Pao's Hmong army in Laos. This action, which lasted almost 20 years, resulted in permanently tying up a division of NVA troops in Laos thereby preventing their participation in Vietnam. Eight former jumpers lost their lives or went MIA in Laos during this time. Jerry died in Bangkok in the aftermath. The overall result was a !0% casualty rate for the Laotian Smokejumper contingent. George K Sisler, another Smokejumper who died in Laos while participating in a covert "military" operation won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions. Jerry Daniels and 9 former Smokejumpers paid dearly in a losing effort over there. Ken Hessel

Outstanding !!