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Welcome to the Seoul American High School Message Forum.

The message forum is an ongoing dialogue between classmates. There are no items, topics, subtopics, tho you may wish to visit our political post preferences at http://www.sahs-reunion.com/Politics-and-the-Forum.htm.

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05/09/21 09:25 PM #423    

Young Do Kim (1984)

There is no one more grateful to this country than I. I am a "war baby" with a name (My maternal grandfather's surname) that does not fit the face. I grew up in abject poverty in Korea with my grandmother until the age of 10. My biological dad was an American soldier who had his fling with an innocent 21 year old Korean girl, who at the time was working as a secretary at G1/2nd ID in Dongducheon. Her dream was to save enough to pursue her higher education in US(My mother, bless her heart, has her masters degree and retired as GS-14 from CDC or Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA). He went to Vietnam and never returned, leaving an innocent 22 year old girl alone and pregnant. Growing up, I recall Korean kids and adults calling me "honhyeur", "jabjong" or "ainoko"...a mixed breed..a mongrel. I did not think much of it as a kid, not knowing what it really meant to be mixed in a closed society that frowned upon and stigmatized people like me and tens of thousands of Amerasians like me, who had been abandoned and forgotten. I am a lucky few who made it to the US and often wondered where my life would be had I remained in Korea. I finally met the man who had abandoned my pregnant mother (1965) for the first time in 2001. He had an illustrious military career having risen to the highest echelon as an officer in US Army JAG (36 years) and as a civilian at Pentagon and Justice Department(22 years). He made the front page of Army Times when he retired in 2018 with 58 years of Federal Service and had his best Army buddy, Virginia state senator Dick Black, speak at his retirement ceremony.

On that fateful day when we met, he showed no remorse or regret. I have not talked or seen him since. But what about tens of thousands of people like me who have been abandoned and forgotten and living on the fringes of society (high school graduation rate less than 20%) not only in Korea but in Vietnam, Japan, Philippines and other parts of the world? They will never get to enjoy their birthright...the life they were entitled to..as an Americans.

05/09/21 11:05 PM #424    

Young Do Kim (1984)

.

05/10/21 07:48 AM #425    

Lyn Shaw (1962)

Young Do Kim: I so admire your courage in speaking out about an aspect of mlitary life that has disgusted me for a long time. There is much about the mllitary that is commendable, but when I lived in Korea I  became well aware that that some U.S. soldiers, for their own temporary pleasure, took advantage of innocent Korean girls .

Despite her situation, your mother overcame obstacles to attain a high GS status, a triumph. You, yourself, despite your father's lack of integrity iwhen years later he refused to be accountable for his actions as a young soldier, are doing your best to put a stop to the hateful practice that was your unfortunate beginning.

I wish you peace and a  brighter future!.

Lyn Shaw '62

 

I

05/10/21 08:33 AM #426    

 

Patrick Camblin (1974)

For Katherine Alfsen (1980) and others who what to see what Yongsan looked like from the air prior to developments over the last decade and more, try downloading the free application called "Google Earth Pro", expose the toolbar (select 'view > toolbar' from the menu), and use the "Historical Imagery" slider to slide back the years. Google Earth has imagery back to 1985 and many years in between then and now, though for Yongsan, details don't stand out until the 2002 images ;-)

 

05/10/21 09:30 AM #427    

 

Dennis Martin (1979)

Young Do Kim...I await your book...yours is a story that should be written.

05/11/21 11:12 AM #428    

 

Patrick Camblin (1974)

Thank you for sharing your story, Young Do Kim (1984). Yours had to have been among the hardest rows to plow, and I hope things have gotten better in what appears to me at least to be a more "enlightened", albeit far from perfect world.  I'm glad to hear of your mother's successes, and hope they conveyed to you.  God bless and keep you in all you do.

05/11/21 12:08 PM #429    

Arthur (Randy) Lee (1962)

Young Do Kim and Lyn shaw
Looking at life in Korea now, it can be easy to forget how precarious life was for most Koreans in the years after the war. I was there from 1959 - 62, so I didn't see the worst of it, but what I did see was still pretty desperate. Efforts to reforest the country were constantly undermined by people cutting down the plantings for firewood. On cold winter nights, the poorest sometimes froze to death on the streets of Seoul. We were Embassy and lived in a small compound in the city, so saw some of this. Survival sometimes took precedence over self respect and conventional morality. Many soldiers had more or less temporary girlfriends. I remember the orderly line of Korean women that stretched all around the block of the officers' hotel in Seoul, women waiting patiently for the opportunity to solicit an American. There was nothing wanton about this, the women were doing it for survival, not only their own survival, but also for that of their families, often their husbands and children.
One of the themes of the Students' Revolution was a repudiation of what they saw as the immorality of their parents' generation and a call for the return to strict, traditional morality. They were, to my mind, too hard on their parents, who had done what they had to do to survive, but that moral shift marked what I think was a decisive change towards the new Korea that was emerging.
That backlash was, I think, indiscriminate and often the victims were the children of those relationships. Kim's experience, I am sure, had more to do with the reaction against the "whatever it takes for us to survive" mentality than anything to do with his mother's seduction. As so often happens, it is the innocent who suffer the most.

05/11/21 09:36 PM #430    

Young Do Kim (1984)

Intellectual masturbation of self-righteous? So Korean woman = woman with needs, woman with needs = seductress and ergo Korean woman = seductress or Jimmy Swaggert = pastor, Jimmy Swaggert = fornicator, therefore pastor = fornicator. Brain Fart!!!

I was only calling for repudiation of those living with impunity. They should have known better than to exploit the vulnerable. Didn't their preachers teach them any better? Growing up in Georgia, my spiritual leaders were Jim and Tammy Bakker, Jerry Farwell(until he called Teletubby Tinky Winky a gay role model and made my daughter cry), and Jimmy Swaggert, the faces of Christianity. I thought about going to a seminary, Amen! Hallelujah! Holy Trinity!, (looking back, I wanted to cloak my insecurity as a person and more importantly as a man,for not quite measuring up, literally) because I felt that God had ordained and chosen me to propagate the divine wisdom imparted upon me thru Holy Spirit and save the blind who gave into the bodily temptations of this world from perdition but then....It dawned on me that I was a descendant of Maria Magdalena..the seductress.. and was not worthy of pastoring and shepherding the blind to Kingdom of Heaven. "Qui sinne peccatto est vestrum primus in illam lapidem mittat", Amen.

05/12/21 09:06 AM #431    

Katherine Alfsen (1980)

THank you Patrick Camblin (1974) for the GE Pro tip...that is QUITE amazing to see those differences over time.

05/12/21 12:40 PM #432    

Arthur (Randy) Lee (1962)

Young Do Kim, I hope that your last post was not a response to mine, though I suppose it must have been. What you described sounded to me like a "Madam Butterfly" situation with different expectations on both sides, especially as regards the depth of commitment. I assumed that your father was aware that he had little long-term commitment and thus I felt that he had seduced your mother. Your mother sounds wonderful, a strong and brave woman.
When you described the prejudice you felt growing up, I commented only to describe what I saw as the Korean social background to that prejudice, not as anything relating directly to your mother.
The first girl I ever really fell in love with was a Korean I met in my senior year while teaching conversational English at a small language school in Seoul. It was the real thing on both our parts, though it never went physically beyond a few tentative kisses. When I left for the US, she and her family came to the airport to see me off. All of which is by way of saying that I do understand a little about love across those boundaries. Not having found a way to have maintained that relationship and reunited with her is one of the genuine regrets of my life.
Your theological history stunned me. It's clearly been quite a journey and, by the sound of it, a very painful one, especially since so much was based on the actions of other people rather than on your own. Your own goodness and worth should never have been in question, any more than God's love for you. Fortunately, it sounds as though you have come through well and are in a good place.
Again, my apologies for the hurt I have caused. It was not intended.

05/15/21 04:40 PM #433    

Douglas Schultz (1989)

Hi - My first post here but wanted to recommend a great new book https://dmzforgottenwar.com/ if interested.  Korea was a big part of many of our lives; this book highlights the events that led to the Korean War up to Post-War modern Korea.  Lots of pictures and illustrations; significant US Military coverage and contribution.

Know the author's brother who's based out of Seattle and unfortunately a Husky; Go Cougs! 

In any case, thought I'd share a meaningful book. 
Doug Schultz
Class '89

05/15/21 05:35 PM #434    

Jarvis Levelle Brown (1983)

are you david silva?

05/15/21 10:31 PM #435    

Young Do Kim (1984)

If you are into trading cryptocurrency and would like to share your experience/knowledge, please reach out to me.

05/15/21 10:31 PM #436    

Young Do Kim (1984)

If anyone knows the whereabouts of Michael Williams '83, please let me know?

05/17/21 06:01 PM #437    

Jarvis Levelle Brown (1983)

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE WINGS!!!!

05/17/21 06:04 PM #438    

Jarvis Levelle Brown (1983)

WINGS RULE, FAR AS HOOPS ARE CONCERNED!

05/18/21 10:48 PM #439    

Young Do Kim (1984)

It would be interesting to put together a documentary of SAHS and its alums(titled "NIDO"), while most alums and teachers are still alive( no offence and wish you all longevity and health). I envision it as a collaborative project headed by a committee made up of representatives from each decade(with sufficient funds to engage specialists as needed). The end product would capture both visuals (pictures and reels collected from both public and private(alums)sources) and narratives through interviews and other sources. It will analyze the forces and dynamics that shaped our perception at the time(an objective assessment of what was happening beyond our walls and US policies that had direct impact on our lives); our account of our experiences; what we took away from our experiences; and what impact our experiences had on our lives( not necessarily in that order). Finally, the project would be financed by donations from alums (GoFundMe). A time capsule sent with our first colonization of Mars will include SAHS doc. Just a thought...

05/19/21 12:07 AM #440    

Young Do Kim (1984)

Given our intellectual wherewithal, I always assumed SAHS would produce likes of Elon Musk or Bill Gates..I blame it all on our conservative upbringing for not producing eminence.

05/19/21 08:43 AM #441    

 

Christina Blastos (1983)

Nice idea!  Btw conservative is not a bad thing. I certainly had a creative career as an entertainer. 

05/19/21 08:47 AM #442    

Hansang Bae (1984)

Hey now!  I (well, my wife, but I helped) 😀 produced two respectful, thoughtful, patriotic, kind, generous boys and I'll chalk that up as a win.  As Denzel Washington said,  no one pulls a U-Haul with their hearse.  If I die and know that my wife I did right by raising two productive, successful and kind boys, I'll die a happy man.   I may not have the billions, but that's OK.  I remember while talking to a friend in college about how AWESOME it would be to make $35K a year.  That was a long time ago!  :)

It does take a while to understand that money isn't everything in life.  Glad I learned it sooner rather than later.

05/20/21 04:04 PM #443    

 

Patrick Camblin (1974)

Wait.. What?  Did anyone else see that an "All Years" (1959-2019) SAHS reunion has just been proposed for Jan-Feb 2022 (date tbd) in New Orleans on top of the already scheduled 1974-1999 reunion in Las Vegas in April 2022?  Having two reunions in one year covering the same populations is going to be problematic with respect to the more recently proposed reunion "canabalizing" the other.  Any chance of improving coordination / cooperation between the planners? I'm teetering on whether to go to the Vegas reunion, but not sure it makes sense to go to either knowing that others will be going to one but not the other, generally halving those I might see in what would otherwise be a once in a lifetime event for me.

05/20/21 06:46 PM #444    

Young Do Kim (1984)

Kudos to both of you! Hansang, you are exactly where I thought you'd be..occupying a "C-suite" at a bleeding edge tech company..
Christina, my daughter is following in your footsteps( I am encouraging and supporting her), trying to make her mark in cruel, unforgiving and chauvinistic world they call Hollywood. I envy those with talent, passion and gumption, like you, who'd dared to live unscripted lives.

05/22/21 09:06 AM #445    

 

Bradley Rittman (1984)

I'm back. It's been a long time since I've been on this site. I went to SAHS my Junior and senior year 82 to 84. 
I like to give a shout out to Jarvis Labelle Brown. We played football together in high school and at the City College of San Francisco "Rams". 

05/23/21 12:01 PM #446    

Tad Clark (1984)

Hello Bradley....how are you...do you remember me...I am in Knoxville TN now and been since 1992

05/23/21 01:17 PM #447    

Jim Mendelson (1967)

              Only two weeks to our semi-annual Class of 1967 (and adjacent classes) virtual Zoom reunion.  Dwight Kling will be hosting this meeting.  It is Sunday June 6th at 1 PM left coast, 4 PM eastern.  Here is the link:

Jim Mendelson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: SAHS Semi-Annual Class of 1967 (and adjacent classes) Virtual Reunion

Time: This is a recurring meeting link

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83775741559?pwd=cDlpRGpwRThCR2NhbU1vckpiVnhhdz09

Meeting ID: 837 7574 1559

Passcode: 451583
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