Kham Xiong of St. Paul had two years under his belt with the Army when he got the orders to go to Afghanistan. He was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas and was training to work with heavy artillery overseas.
On Thursday, he stood with about 300 other soldiers at the base's Soldier Readiness Center to get a flu shot and have his eyes tested prior to being shipped out in January.
As he waited, an Army psychiatrist armed with at least one pistol opened fire on the soldiers.
In all, 13 people were killed and 30 wounded in the worst mass killing ever on a U.S. military base.
Xiong, 23, died as a result of the shooting.
His parents in St. Paul don't know exactly how or where Xiong died, but said he was among the first to be
"We loved him very much," father Chor Xiong said. "Why is it that it had to be Kham?"
Xiong's extended family — he has 10 younger siblings — gathered at his parent's two-story home on the Eastside Friday morning. They looked through scrapbooks at photos of Kham and snacked from a table laden with oranges, bananas and sausage. A pastor stopped by to pray.
The family said Kham Xiong was a good, hard-working son who called home every night to talk with his father and younger brothers. He was going to be deployed to the Middle East soon, the family said, and was anxious to get oversees.
The family's last conversation with their son was earlier this week.
"I talked with him, how he needed to
Kham Xiong lived off base with his wife, Shoua Her, and three children — two boys and one girl.
Shoua Her had talked with her husband by phone around noon Thursday but could not reach him when she called again at 1:30 p.m. after seeing news of the shooting on television, Chor Xiong said.
She called her husband's phone repeatedly for the next few hours, then called Chor Xiong and asked him to try his son's phone.
Chor Xiong received no answer.
Shoua Her called the base but couldn't get any information about her husband, Chor Xiong said. She eventually drove to the base but couldn't get in — the military had locked down the base following the shooting.
At one point, Chor Xiong said, the family was told Kham Xiong was in a hospital and might be all right.
But at 3 a.m., an Army officer showed up at Kham Xiong's hometo tell his wife Kham was dead.
The family hasn't slept since then, a brother-in-law said.
The Xiongs immigrated to the United States when Kham Xiong was three years old, his father said.
They spent 11 years in California and moved to St. Paul about 10 years ago.
Chor Xiong said his family has
Chor Xiong fought in Laos during the Vietnam conflict, as did his father.
Kham Xiong, Chor Xiong's oldest child, had had an interest in serving since childhood.
"From kindergarten to 12th grade, he liked the Army," Chor Xiong said.
The father said his son wanted to go on to college but didn't have the money. A younger brother was already serving in the Marines and encouraged Kham Xiong to join the Armed Forces. The older brother enlisted in the Army two years ago.
He was stationed at Fort Knox in Kentucky before he was moved to Fort Hood, his family said. He returned to Minnesota this July to pick up his wife and children and move them to a home near the base.
Four of Her's sisters flew down to Texas this morning to pack up the family and bring them back to St. Paul.
The family said Xiong's body would be flown back to Minnesota this weekend and planned a funeral for next week.
A 2004 graduate of Community of Peace Academy in St. Paul, Kham Xiong liked to hunt deer and squirrel near Brainerd and fish for white bass, crappies and walleye in the St. Croix River, his dad said.
Chor Xiong sat up straight as he talked about his son — the good soldier, worker and son — and questioned how such a catastrophe could happen on a military base.
"We're devastated because he hadn't been deployed yet, and this tragedy happened," Chor Xiong said. "We're just wondering, 'Why?'"
Kham Xiong is survived by his wife and three children; his parents; and 10 siblings.
Another soldier from Minnesota was wounded in the same attack, according to her family.
Army Reserve Spc. Keara Bono was on the phone with her husband when the shooting began, her family told the Kansas City Star. She was shot in the back and has abrasions to her face.
Bono lives in Otsego, according to her MySpace page.
She wrote on her Facebook page this morning that she is OK.
"I'm strong," she wrote. "Keep praying."
Brother Dustin Bono told the Kansas City Star that his sister appeared to be fine and was "mad more than anything." She was scheduled to be in Iraq on Dec. 7.
This report contains information from the Associated Press.
John Brewer can be reached at 651-228-2093.
