By This is kind of cool for the two Navy officers involved:
Two Aegis destroyers of the U.S. Navy commanded by Korean-American officers will for the first time take part in a regular U.S.-Korean military exercise in March. A military source on Wednesday said the so-called Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercise will be staged across Korea from March 9 to 20, and two U.S. Aegis ships led by Korean-American naval commanders will take part.
The officers are commander Choi Hee-dong, captain of the USS Chafee (DDG-90), and commander Jeffrey Kim, who will be assigned as captain of USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) next month. The John S. McCain (DDG-56) belongs to the Seventh Fleet based in Yokosuka, Japan, which would be the first to sail to the Korean Peninsula in case of a war here.
That they are commanded by Korean Americans therefore has symbolic resonance. A ceremony for Kim to assume command will be held in Busan, a source said.
An officer with the U.S. Forces Korea said as in previous years, about 26,000 U.S. troops — 12,000 USFK and about 14,000 other troops stationed overseas — will participate. A fleet consisting of nuclear-powered 97,000 t-class aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, four to five Aegis destroyers, and a nuclear-powered attack submarine will also join the Korean Navy for an exercise. [Chosun Ilbo]
10:57 am on February 19th, 2009 1
How many other nations would provide the opportunity for men and women of different ethnic origin to rise to positions of such prominence? Many Koreans criticize the United States for a number of reasons. However, I suspect that my son, who is a Korean citizen, will never be permitted to command a Korean naval vessel because he is half American. God bless America!
11:03 am on February 19th, 2009 2
The late COL YoungOak Kim must be smiling from the heaven. He was the first US Army Korean-American Battalion commander and now there are 2 Korean-Americans are commanding Naval ships during war game in Korea.
5:20 am on February 21st, 2009 3
First these guys are Korean
Second they are American
Your statement is pretty clear to me.
Where are the American-Koreans
I've not seen the first American-Korean Private.
9:43 am on April 13th, 2011 4
#1
I'd think if S Korea was as big and wealthy and powerful and possess as much available plenty land, I'm sure SK would be more accommodating… But I bet you wouldn't want your son to serve in ROK armed forces if it was optional…
2:55 am on July 26th, 2011 5
Looks like commander Choi Hee-dong is no longer in command of USS Chafee? Wonder where he is now…
3:01 pm on July 26th, 2011 6
A sad story for Larry Gonzalez, ex-XO of Chafee, who was scheduled to relieve Commander Choi on Chafee as the CO of USS Chafee.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/11/navy_chafee_xo_fired_112509w/
Mr. L Gonzalex was fired ON THE DAY the official ceremony for his promotion to CO of USS Chafee was supposed to take place!
WHT? Any guess what could’ve been the cause?
4:08 pm on July 26th, 2011 7
John in CA,
I don’t know the reason for his being fired but the timing of this sure sounds vindictive.
6:37 pm on July 26th, 2011 8
After googling i ran into an article at military.com talking about this incident. In the comment section of the article someone posted what she heard from son in the navy…
It talked about some personal misconduct by the XO.