His Excellency Ambassador Cho; Mr. Kim, president of the New York Korean American Association; Mr. Bob Kreek, director of the New York USO; my heroes, the Korean War veterans; and distinguished guests:

It is my honor to have the opportunity to speak at such a meaningful event. Thank you, Mr. Son Suk-wan, the president of the Staten Island Korean American Association, and the community members for your invitation.

President Bush asked me to convey his best to the members of the Korean American community. I am delighted to report to you that the Bush Administration is working diligently to work with the North Korea and the United States Senate is drafting a bill to set up a budget and policy to bring democracy to North Korea and address the North Korean refugees issues who were left out and ignored alongside the Chinese border for many long years.

I am here today as a volunteer of the Good Neighboring Campaign. We are a non-profit organization created to encourage the Asian American immigrant community to participate in community affairs and mingle with its non-Asian neighbors. I was thrilled when I received the first call from Mr. Son saying that he wanted to invite me to participate with his organization and their plans to have an event serving the neighboring community. We both decided to honor the USO. USO has been served American troops abroad for a long time and they work particularly hard these past three years ever since the 9:11 happened.

I was nine years old when the Korean War broke out over 50 years ago. So many things happened in such a short period of time. The war was the first time I met foreigners?soldiers from America and other countries who came to help South Korea combat the brutal attack of the communists from North Korea.

The schools closed during the war, and we didn’t have any place to play. For toys, we would play with ammunition shells, explosives, and rifle bullets. I must tell you that we would chew and eat the explosive leaps and powder. We hung out near the American military campsites pretty much every day, looking for something to eat. Some GIs would throw us Hershey bars, chewing gum, and other food. We rushed to the GI campsites as they moved out to other sites. We would find discarded ration boxes containing sugar packs, coffee creamers, jams, luncheon meat, biscuits, and often cigarette packs. One time, I opened a brown pack similar to the size of a pack of sugar. I opened it and poured the contents into my mouth, but the taste was not what I expected: it was coffee. I wondered why these long-nosed foreigners would eat such bitter powdered food.

Because of another type of encounter I had with a U.S. soldier, I wondered something else about these people who came to my home in South Korea. On one very hot summer day in 1952, a few friends and I were swimming around a mountain creek near our refugee camp. We heard a loud metal scraping sound from the sky and saw that a fighter jet with smoke trails was nose-diving to the mountain valley. We jumped out of the pebble stone bed of the creek and ran up to the crash site. We found no survivors?only the pilot’s body parts hanging over the pine tree branches. The scene remains impressed on my brain to this day. I long wondered why American people would die for the Korean people and for others in the world.

It took me about forty years to understand. During Desert Storm back in the early 1991, the U.S. Congress was considering reviving the draft. My son Jimmy would have been eligible. He would have been deployed to the Middle East to save the people of Kuwait, and of course face the chance that he might not come back home safely.

Now I understand American resolve to help others fight for their freedoms. I know for sure that the Afghans and Iraqi people who have been saved from brutal dictatorships will one day appreciate Americans as much as I do today. We gathered today might not hear the sounds of appreciation, but our children will. The American spirit saves lives and ensures freedom, and I am proud to be American.

Many times, I wish that I was young enough to join the U.S. Armed Forces to pay back the favor I received from that pilot and the 37,000+ other Americans who died for me during the Korean War. Too bad I am a little too old.

The 2-million-strong Korean American community, a valuable ethnic group of this great country contributing values the nation very needed. Energizes America’s work places with diligent work ethics, our children stimulate their classmates with good study habits and the powerful prayers of 3,000 plus Korean American churches in America are awakening Christians and non-believers to pray for the Nation.
We are still new to America, but we are learning to contribute more.

Tonight, citizens of the New York Korean American community are gathered to help the USO, which helps the troops the most. I would think it is a small start, but the result will be greater. I want to commend Mr. Son Suk-wan, president of the Staten Island Korean American Association, and the participating community leaders who initiated this process. You are setting a new direction for our community and this part of the country.

I may be too old to serve in the battlefield, but thanks to the USO for the opportunity to help the troops who protecting our Nation. I appreciate Mr. Bob Kreek of the New York USO and his team for the time and efforts, you put forth to serve our nation.

May God bless all of you?the USO, the Korean American community, and your families?and God bless America.