Klobuchar, Franken, McCollum attend Ft. Hood service
Some members of Minnesota's congressional delegation are among those attending today's memorial service for the victims of the shooting at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas last week.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, and Rep. Betty McCollum plan to attend the cermony at the sprawling Army base, which will be led by President Barack Obama.
Among the 13 who died was Pfc. Kham Xiong, 23, who lived in McCollum's St. Paul Congressional District. Xiong was married and had three young children. McCollum says Xiong's family has a history of serving the U.S. military.
"Private Xiong's grandfather and father who were natives of the country of Laos, helped with the CIA secret war, were involved in supporting U.S. missions in Laos against the communists," said McCollum. "The Hmong have a strong reputation of rescuing and keeping a lot of our servicemen safe when they were behind enemy lines."
McCollum says she hopes to meet the Xiong family today, and offer condolences from Minnesota. Xiong was preparing for deployment to Afghanistan when he was killed.
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