JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas –
(Editor's note: 2nd Lt. Howard’s last name, along with the name of his father, have been withheld for security purposes.)
If not for American military intervention in the Korean War, 2nd Lt. Howard, 25th Air Force, might never have joined the Air Force.
As far as his father, Mike, is concerned, Howard might not have been born in the first place. "
We are definitely humbled to be here," noted Howard, a second generation Korean American whose father survived the conflict. "If North Korea had over- run us, my family might have been put in a political prison camp or my dad might even have died before I had a chance to be born."
With the anniversary of the outbreak of war in Korea approaching on Saturday, Howard’s family legacy speaks for the similar journey of millions of Koreans and Korean-Americans with family histories forever altered by the conflict.
The Korean War, which lasted from June 1950 through July 1953, was a back-and-forth conflict that initially pitted North Korean communist forces against an overwhelmed South Korean defense. After U.S. forces stationed in Japan pushed the North Koreans back towards the Chinese border, the Chinese themselves intervened, pushing the U.S. back into South Korea before both sides reached a truce, establishing what is now known as the Demilitarized Zone, a border situated along the 38th parallel north. That border, and the division between North and South Korea, remains a contentious and bitter issue on the Korean peninsula to this day.
Howard’s father, born in 1947, was a child when fighting broke out. After the war, he worked as a steam train conductor and semi-professional tennis player, then served in the South Korean armed forces during the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
Afterwards, Mike met his wife in Seoul and moved to the U.S. in 1983, settling in Anaheim, Calif., where he worked his way through jobs as a painter and transmission mechanic. Now approaching his 70th birthday this year, Mike drives tour buses through Yosemite and the Grand Canyon and is thinking about retirement.
While Mike’s family has moved some additional relatives to the U.S., they still have extended family in South Korea, like many Korean-Americans.
But none of that history might have happened if not for U.S. intervention in the war, which stopped North Korean and Chinese troops from overrunning the peninsula. So, as a Korean-American serving in that same U.S. military, Howard shares a unique perspective with his father on the war’s legacy.
"It’s a tremendous honor to serve in the same military that was allies with South Korea during the conflict," Howard explained.
That’s an honor that Mike doesn’t take lightly, having seen fi rsthand the dangers of war. Mike’s own father worked as a transportation engineer for the South Korean government during the war, suffering a wound from bomb shrapnel that almost cost him a leg.
"I told (Howard’s) mom after he commissioned that we, as parents, need to think of Howard as not only our son, but America’s son," Mike said. "And this goes beyond Howard serving our country – he’s ensuring the freedom of the world."
From a practical standpoint, Howard said his service with the 25th Air Force has another connection to the Korean War.
"Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland’s technical train- ing mission grew, in large part, straight out of the Korean War," Howard noted. "Many second-generation Korean-Americans now fi ll technical positions as a part of that mission."
Mike has always told Howard that serving in the Air Force might give him the chance to save others, just as Mike’s family was saved.
"My dad was always showing me newspaper articles about the fi rst Korean or the fi rst Japanese offi cer to become a general in the U.S. Army or Air Force, and he kept telling me, ‘That could be you!" Howard recalled.
But for now, Howard is just focused on his next deployment, with his sights set on serving in South Korea in the future. That return would represent a monumental triumph not only to Howard’s personal career, but to his family legacy, too.
"I’d love to come full circle, serving in a Korean winter myself," Howard suggested. "That would be a tremendous opportunity."