CAMP RED HORSE, Thailand – Sgt. 1st Class Sotheara Chum has spent time as a Green Beret and an Army Ranger, with deployments worldwide. This time, Chum is training in Thailand at Exercise Cobra Gold 2024, but unlike previous trips, this one feels like coming home. Born in Thailand but raised in the United States, Chum is a living bridge between Thai and U.S. cultures.
Chum’s storied Army career has brought him to the Special Operations Detachment - Pacific with the Washington Army National Guard, based out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, serving as both the readiness and operations noncommissioned officer for SOD-PAC.
By serving in the Washington Army National Guard, Chum has reconnected with his ancestral homeland.
“To be back here in the homeland, it’s almost unreal … to not only see the land, breathe the air, feel the hot muggy sun, and to relay that all back to my family,” said Chum. “With the circumstances that we had coming over the border [from Cambodia] I should not have made it this far.”
While he was born in Thailand, Chum claims Lakewood, California, as his hometown. Chum’s family fled from southeast Asia and came to the United States due to political instability in their home countries. His family settled in a refugee camp in eastern Thailand near Sakeo and eventually settled in the United States as refugees.
After traveling around the United States in his childhood, Chum joined the U.S. Army.
“I started off in the infantry … but I wanted to do commando stuff, so I joined a Ranger regiment.”
After his time as a U.S. Army Ranger, Chum wanted a new challenge. U.S. Army Special Forces became his new home and brought him new opportunities.
“I did not learn how to speak Thai until I went to the Special Forces,” Chum said. “After finishing the school house, one day at dinner, [my mom] was talking in Thai and I was responding in Thai, I knew what she was saying. It was a great awakening moment.”
At Exercise Cobra Gold 2024, Chum has been working with the 1st Force Special Forces Division Headquarters Element, Royal Thai Army. Chum has connected with his Thai counterpart, a noncommissioned officer who has also spent time as a Thai Ranger and in the Royal Thai Special Forces.
“We have been talking in English, talking in Thai, and I have been talking in Cambodian with him,” said Chum. “It is funny, it is surreal, and I am so glad to be back.”
Army.mil
Sgt. 1st Class Sotheara Chum, readiness and operations noncommissioned officer with the Special Operations Detachment - Pacific, 56th Theater Information Operations Group, Washington Army National Guard, gives an interview about his service at Exercise Cobra Gold 2024, March 4, 2024. Joint Exercise Cobra Gold, now in its 43rd iteration, is the largest joint exercise in mainland Asia and is a concrete example of the strong alliance and strategic relationship between Thailand and the United States. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Alec Dionne) (Sgt. Alec Dionne)