REAR
ADMIRAL MING CHANG - retired after 34 years of service from
the U.S. Navy as the highest ranking Chinese
American in the military. Career included assignments in Navy's
cruiser and destroyer commands deployed to the Mediterranean, Norwegian
Sea, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and the Persian Gulf. He's received
the Legion of Merit with three gold stars; the Bronze
Star; the Spanish Cross of Aeronautical Merit with White Ribbon;
and the West German Meritorious Iron Cross First Class. He currently
holds a dual post of Vice President and Corporate Director for the
Pacific Region at Raytheon International, Inc.
COL. YOUNG OAK KIM - Colonel Young Oak Kim became the first Asian American officer to
exercise command in a combat battalion. Kim's most famous exploit was a daylight mission in Anzio.
Having volunteered to capture German soldiers for intelligence, he
and another soldier crawled more than 600 yards directly under German
observation posts without cover. They succeeded in capturing two
prisoners and obtaining information that significantly contributed to
the fall of Rome, for which Kim was awarded the Distinguished Service
Cross. His 100th, along with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, became
the most decorated unit of its size and length of service in U.S.
military history. Kim retired from the U.S. Army in 1972 as a full colonel
after 30 years of active duty and became a respected leader in the
Japanese American community.
GENERAL
ERIC K. SHINSEKI - 4 Star General (highest ranking
Asian Pacific American in the Army. The Kauai native was placed on the Army's fast track after
compiling one of the most distinguished records of any Vietnam veteran. Within a few months of graduating from West Point in 1965 Second Lieutenant Shinseki went to Vietnam as an artillery forward observer. He went back for a second tour as commander of a tank
squadron. He was wounded three times during those tours. On one occasion Shinseki's injuries were so severe that even his own sergeant assumed he had died in the hospital. Thirty years later, learning that Shinseki had survived, Les Cotton called him "the finest person and the best officer I have ever served with".
Shinseki's valorous leadership under fire won him two Distinguished Service Medals, the Bronze Star and several Purple Hearts.
