Kentucky Colonel Khatanbold "Hatnaa" Oidov - officially one of "us."
In April 2012, Hatnaa was a participant in the US State Department's Legislative Fellows program. The University of Kentucky hosted a group of five Fellows from Mongolia, Cambodia and Indonesia. KLC was fortunate to have Hatnaa (Khatanbold Oidov) as our Fellows intern. It's really more of a mentoring and cultural exchange program. Hatnaa fit right in. Our staff and our city officials really took to him. I think that I learned as much as he did. He was great to work with and we became fast friends.
The Kentucky General Assembly was in a special called session at the time. J.D. Chaney, KLC's Chief Legislative Officer, introduced Hatnaa to Senator Dorsey Ridley and Senator Ridley wanted to recognize Hatnaa on the floor of the Senate...which he did.
In additon, Senator Ridley requested that Governor Beshear commission Hatnaa as a Kentucky Colonel. Because of travel schedules, the commission certificate did not reach Hatnaa before he left the US. When I found out that I would be traveling to Mongolia, I asked Senator Ridley if he could help us locate the certificate so that I could deliver it to Hatnaa. Thanks to Senator Ridley for moving heaven and earth to make it happen!
This past week, I had the honor of presenting the certficate to Hatnaa on behalf of Governor Beshear and Senator Ridley in the presence of the agency for which Hatnaa works. We decided to go downtown to the Ulaanbaatar City Hall building to take a photo. Please congratulate Colonel Hatnaa!! He was surprised to receive the honorary commission and appreciated Governor Beshear and Senator Ridley for making it possible.
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