While continuing his filming in Phnom Penh, Dale met a young Lieutenant who invited him to film his military base on the outskirts of the city and capture some 'front line action footage' which Dale gratefully accepted. The location was an elevated Buddhist Pagoda overlooking low laying paddy fields. During preceding days government forces under the command of General Prince Norodom Chantaraingsey were engaging the Khmer Rouge from this elevated position.

The Pagoda was being defended by very young teenage soldiers who looked after Dale and offered to take him to meet General Chantaraingsey the following day. As evening approached, the Pagoda came under fierce attack from the Khmer Rouge who had seen this white American looking 'advisor' through binoculars and set out to kill him. Facing certain death, word got back to General  Chantaraingsey who dispatched a number of soldiers to stem off the attack and save the life of this unknown civilian.

The following day, Dale was driven to the main army base and introduced to Chantaraingsey where he could thank the General personally for saving his life. It was then that Dale discovered that General Chantaraingsey was in fact the son of the man who's funeral he had attended some three days prior.

Over the next five years a bond developed with Chantaraingsey that Dale describes as more like a father-son relationship. As this friendship deepened, Dale vowed to do what he could to help Chantaraingsey and the plight of the Cambodian people against the well equipped Khmer Rouge army led by Pol Pot.