There are only two Hmong firefighters in Wisconsin. One of them lives right here in La Crosse. “Everybody wants to live the American dream,” Batallion Chief Bee Xiong said. “I think that’s what my family and I are doing right now.” Xiong built 19 years and counting with the La Crosse Fire Department. Xiong is one of two Hmong Firefighters in Wisconsin. “When you get that feeling of pride and ownership after you help somebody out,” Xiong said. “That’s just a rewarding feeling. It’s kind of indescribable.” The career and life he made in La Crosse didn’t come without hardship and sacrifice. “I was actually born in Laos,” Xiong said. Hmong soldiers who helped America in the Vietnam War were persecuted by the communist regime in the late 1970s early 1980s.