A second group of Cambodians joined the North Vietnamese Army. The group consisted of at least three one- hundred man Cambodian companies, which were attached to Vietnamese regiments. A North Vietnamese Lt. Colonel who defected in 1968 recently stated that in 1955 one such company served with the 90th Regiment of the 324th Division. The company was made up of officers and noncoms, who received the same training as other members of the regiment, but who understood that they would eventually be used as a "nucleus of revolutionary forces" in Cambodia. Like the Cambodians in the training camp, this group's first job was to learn Vietnamese. Similarly, its "presence in North Vietnam was to be kept secret.