File:Colonel Ek Nop 1970's Khmer Army.jpg

English: EK NOP was born in 1926 to a provincial upper middle class family in Takeo, Cambodia.

His grandfather was a tax agent for the King and went on the back of an elephant to collect gold and silver coins from the inhabitants. The sense of public service was therefore already in the family. TA had 7 brothers and sisters, he was the eldest of the boys. This position in the siblings allowed him to study and become a clerk in the French language because at that time, the country was under French protectorate. During his schooling in Cambodia and Vietnam, he had, in addition to French, learned Vietnamese. He was therefore trilingual: Cambodian, Vietnamese and French. In 1947, the French army, then at war against the Vietnamese, asked my grandfather to join its ranks because of his ability to communicate in 3 languages. He thus becomes sergeant or sergeant. He also participated in the terrible battle of Diên Bien Phu. He was never shot and injured. The reason is that TA was positioned at the back and just served as an interpreter for the soldiers of different nationalities in place. He was very happy with that "never touched, never sunk"! That was his motto!!! Before France left Indochina in 1954 by the Geneva agreements, this Indochina which would later become Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, the French army decorated my grandfather with 3 medals for his bravery and his sense of duty: the FAR EAST medal, the EXTERNAL OPERATIONS THEATERS medal and the FRENCH EXPEDITIONARY CORPS FOR FAR EAST medal.

Cambodia therefore becomes a new and independent country. My grandfather went from the French army to the Royal Cambodian army. He will obtain the rank of captain of the army immediately.

When the Kherm Rouge arrived in April 1975, TA had become Colonel of the Army and was to be promoted this year to General.