He was a farmer in Steuben County, Indiana, until the age of 47,[1] 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.

Buell worked in Laos through the Laotian Civil War, organizing relief aid to refugees and isolated villages.

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

In May 1960, he left Indiana for an orientation course in Washington, D.C., and then flew to Laos (his first time out of the United States) for his new job.

[2][3] In Laos, Pop (as he came to be universally known) was assigned to a small village about 100 miles north of Vientiane on the Plain of Jars.

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

Increasingly, both the United States and North Vietnam intervened militarily in Laos to protect their toehold in the country.

To Buell, now working for the U.S. Agency for International Development, fell the task of organizing relief aid to refugees and isolated villagers.

He 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.