My father–now 95 years old–is a true patriot who served in all four Services to include the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force, and he is a veteran of World War II, the Korea and Vietnam Wars. When World War II began, my father had not yet finished high school, but was led by his strong sense of patriotism to serve his country, so he went to the Navy, seeking to be a fighter pilot. However, the Navy told him to go to the Marines, and there, the Marines referred him back to the Navy. They informed him that he could serve as a mess attendant or cook.
Undaunted, my father sought out his dreams of becoming a fighter pilot through the Air Force. Eventually, he achieved his dream, flying the F-84 and F-86 fighter jets during the Korean Conflict. He later went on to become the First Asian-American 747 commercial pilot for Pan American World Airways, or Pan Am. After several months of research and writing, I co-authored an article on my father that was recently published in the Journal of the Chinese Historical Society of America, where he made it to the cover. Purchase your copy here. I learned so much about my father, which gave me a much better understand, appreciation of him and his impact on my life.
He is among the less than 10% remaining Chinese-American World War II Veterans to receive the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. This momentous occasion was originally schedule to take place on April 29, 2020, in our nation’s capital, but has been delayed due to the COVID-19 lockdown. With civil unrest and dissension tearing at the very fabric of our society, we need now–more than ever before–to come together as people. Our strength lies in our diversity. Whether your father served in the military or not doesn’t matter; what’s important is celebrating and honoring him for the sacrifices made and for his legacy. If you don’t know much about your father, set aside some time to learn more about him and the historical context in which he was raised. What was going on historically, socially, and politically? What was going on within his family?
Why is this important? In working with my clients, I have found that some of the most challenging issues confronting them are often issues that they’ve had in their relationship with their father. Unless these issues are acknowledged and worked through, whatever is unresolved will come up time and time again and has definite impacts to all of your relationships. Moreover, even if you may not have gotten along well with your father while growing up, it’s when you look at the context of what was going on when your father was growing up and how his parents raised him that allows you to view your father through the lens of love and compassion. In so doing, you can become transformed, which frees you to become the person you were meant to be.
As George Santayana, professor of philosophy at Harvard once said, “Those who do no learn history are doomed to repeat it,” which still rings true today. Do you ever find yourself struggling to do the things that you want to do and doing things that you wished you had not have done? Part of becoming healthy is developing an inner awareness of what drives you to do the things that you do. As you continue to grow and develop in your soul and spirit, you’ll soon come to see that any drivenness that you may have felt throughout the years evolves to where you can, in time, be led by something bigger than you and your life. This is the path that you are to follow. It may not feel easy, but quite unexpectedly, you can feel at peace in spite of the challenges facing you.
We are living in uncertain times, but today, as we celebrate our fathers, let’s take a little bit of time to understand and appreciate them for the person that they are based on the times in which they grew up. History does have a way of repeating itself, until we learn the lesson that it lays before us.
