15 Facts About Pop Buell

Edgar "Pop" Buell was a humanitarian aid worker in Laos.

Pop Buell was a farmer in Steuben County, Indiana, until the age of 47, but following the death of his wife in 1958 he joined the International Voluntary Services, a precursor to the Peace Corps, which offered him a job as an agricultural adviser in Laos.

Pop Buell was forced to flee Laos in 1974 when the Communist Pathet Lao gained control of the country.

In 1958, Pop Buell volunteered with the International Voluntary Services at the salary of sixty-five dollars a month.

In Laos, Pop Buell was assigned to a small village about 100 miles north of Vientiane on the Plain of Jars.

Pop Buell lived in a hut without plumbing or electricity, his life there reminding him of growing up on the farm in Indiana.

Pop Buell became involved in the Laotian Civil War between the Royalist government, supported by the United States, and the Communist Pathet Lao.

The CIA supported local efforts to fight the Pathet Lao, made up largely of Hmong and other highlanders and Pop Buell was the man on the scene who knew the Hmong and had their trust.

Pop Buell became involved with the CIA largely through circumstance with his volunteer activities.

Pop Buell took money out of his retirement fund to buy supplies when US government funds and resources were interrupted, as they often were at the far end of the supply chain.

Pop Buell was known to the Hmong as Tan Pop, "Uncle Pop".

In 1974, Pop Buell was out of a job with the Hmong and the US government.

Pop Buell worked briefly as a teacher in Vientiane, but the American Embassy there soon learned that his name was on a list of people to be murdered by the Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese who were completing their conquest of the country.

Pop Buell died December 29,1980, while visiting a friend in Manila, Philippines.

Pop Buell is buried beside his wife Mattie in Edon Cemetery, Edon, Ohio.