Proud to Have Served: True People, True Stories, True Heroes

By K. Kenneth Siu MD

Dr. Sius unique book served as an inspiration to many of us. He accomplished what many of us set out to do but never completed. This biographical novel brought back many fond memories of mine when I was growing up.

Alan WC Ma, JD..
Professor of Law, Richardson School of Law,
University of Hawaii
____________________________
It is amazing Dr. Siu was able to cover so many aspects of life in a single book. He was a person of magnificent creativity. His compassion and passion of sharing his life philosophies as exemplified in this book are truly commendable.

Harold Lee, PhD.,
Distinguished Science Teacher, Retired, Punahou Academy, Hawaii,
Once a teacher of President Barack Obama II
________________________________________
It was my pleasure to serve as chief editor for Dr. Sius book. I am glad to be part of this project - a must-read for veterans and for many of us who appreciate the sacrifices they made for world peace.

Mr Richard Simons of Yale, Harvard, Oxford Universities,
Master History Teacher, World Traveler, Publisher,
____________________________________________________________
His timing is perfect in publishing this book. While there are conflicts around the world, Dr. Siu encouraged us to focus on peace towards man.

David T.Y. Ma, PhD, Tsin Hua University, Taiwan

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 17, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462884315

K. Kenneth Siu MD

Dr. Siu’s unique book served as an inspiration to many of us. He accomplished what many of us set out to do but never completed. This biographical novel brought back many fond memories of mine when I was growing up. Alan WC Ma, JD.. Professor of Law, Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii __________________________________________________________ It is amazing Dr. Siu was able to cover so many aspects of life in a single book. He was a person of magnifi cent creativity. His compassion and passion of sharing his life philosophies as exemplifi ed in this book are truly commendable. Harold Lee, PhD., Distinguished Science Teacher, Retired, Punahou Academy, Hawaii, Once a teacher of President Barack Obama II __________________________________________________________ It was my pleasure to serve as chief editor for Dr. Siu’s book. I am glad to be part of this project - a must-read for veterans and for many of us who appreciate the sacrifi ces they made for world peace. Mr Richard Simons of Yale, Harvard, Oxford Universities, Master History Teacher, World Traveler, Publisher, __________________________________________________________ His timing is perfect in publishing this book. While there are confl icts around the world, Dr. Siu encouraged us to focus on peace towards man. David T.Y. Ma, PhD, Tsin Hua University, Taiwan

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by K. Kenneth Siu, MD.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2011909438

ISBN: Hardcover    978-1-4628-8430-8

ISBN: Softcover      978-1-4628-8429-2

ISBN: Ebook           978-1-4628-8431-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

95559

CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Introduction

Chapter A

Chapter B

Chapter C

Chapter D

Chapter E

Chapter F

Chapter G

Chapter H

Chapter I

Chapter J

Chapter K

Chapter L

Chapter M

Chapter N

Chapter O

Chapter P

Chapter Q

Chapter R

Chapter S

Chapter T

Chapter U

Chapter V

Chapter W

Chapter X

Chapter Y

Chapter Z

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My sincere appreciation goes to the many friends of mine who contributed to these true stories.

To Mr. Alan Ma, Esq. who encouraged me to publish this book, Mr. Simons who did the editing, Dr. David Ma who took many photographs, I will be forever grateful.

To Ms Gloria Madden of Florida, a fellow traveler on an European River Cruise, I am most grateful for your kind consideration of proofreading my manuscript by meticulously reading through it word by word and line by line. I realize my debt to you may never be repaid.

To the Siu Society of Hawaii, a non-profit social, educational, charitable organization created in 1981, I sincerely thank you for electing me again as your president on its 30th anniversary year and sponsoring this project through the Siu Foundation, a 501c(3) entity which may accept public donations with a tax advantage for donors. Profit from the sale of this book will go toward educational programs throughout the world.

To Xlibris Corporation and its staff, I am most grateful to you for assisting me in formatting, designing, and registering the book with the Library of Congress. I look forward to your expert marketing and worldwide distribution of a manuscript which I hope will be a best seller not only in the American continent but also as a valuable addition to global circulation as a motivational read.

To all present and future translators of this book into different languages, I assure you your dedication and patience are most appreciated and will never be forgotten.

To everyone who has done me wrong, I want to thank you for creating these opportunities for me to improve and I do forgive you. To those I might have hurt, I am truly sorry and I promise to amend and to never to do what I did to you to any other. Please forgive me.

Finally, to my parents who have passed on, I owe you a great debt of gratitude. If it wasn’t for your wish for me to be born, to thrive, and to record my life, this book would never have existed.

This book was written in twenty-six chapters following the order of the alphabets. However, our reader is encouraged to start from any chapter he/she chooses. You may read this as a novel, as a book on philosophies of life, or a memoir of a person who treasured every encounter in life.

Life not only has meaning, it is real. Life goes on. Be glad you play a part. I am truly glad I did!  Enjoy!

King-sau Kenneth Siu, MD    

Proud to have served as

LtCol, USAF, MC, FS   1981-2006

LtCol:  Lieutenant Colonel, Officer Rank level 5

USAF: United States Air Force

MC: Medical Corp

FS: Flight Surgeon

1st assignment: Pediatrician, USAF Reserve

                             Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii

                             Current Pearl Harbor, Hickam Joint Base

last assignment: Medical group public relations

                             374th Medical Group,

                             Yokota Air Base, Japan

The colored version of this book may be visited chapter by chapter at the following web site:

http://www.siusocietyhawaii.com/Proud_to_have_served

Enjoy!

KS

INTRODUCTION

Treasure Every Encounter

I dedicate this book to all I have served. As a veteran, I further dedicate this novel to many who served in the armed forces, in the United States, and around the world. Being in combat must be the most awful experience and yet these young men and women, many of them volunteers, followed orders of their commander in chief without consideration of their own personal safety. War is the most tragic act against humanity and I had the privilege to serve those who served. I hope, through this book, our veterans will find hope upon their return from war, to continue to find their missions in life as I did as:

    99.99% of this book came from actual experiences and encounters of the author during the 23 years he served in the United States Air Force. Each of the characters was a real person. While the main character was the author himself, his name has been changed to match the alphabetical letters of the chapters. All the other persona in the chapters were real people that the author met, but their names, locations and times of the incidents were altered to protect the individuals. While each of you know fully who you are and may see your photos on display, it was out of the utmost respect that your faces appear in this book. The author sincerely wishes that this book, and therefore all the characters in it, will last for all eternity, as a beacon of hope that every living thing in the universe is worthy of respect, and that each of us has a responsibility to help oneself and his/her neighbors.

A special Mahalo (Thank you with love in Hawaiian) to the trustees of the Siu Foundation for their extraordinary effort in obtaining the permission from the Joe and Hellen Dorian Foundation to use the lyrics of the song The Impossible Dream in chapters F and Z of this manuscript. We are indeed extremely grateful and appreciate Mr. Joe Dorian’s talent for his master piece. The lyrics written for the Broadway Musical Man of La Mancha was an integral theme and served as ultimate inspiration for this book.

CHAPTER A

Artist

I have served as agent for an art show at city hall

missing image file

The Honolulu Advertiser printed this photo of the author while he was managing an art exhibit at Honolulu city hall.

Arthur was born to a family of literacy background. His grandfather was a schoolteacher, and his father was a scholar of his own right. When Arthur’s parents got married in Hong Kong, they both were recent immigrants who fled from the Communist rule of China to search for another life, free from oppressions of the ruling regime that used torture as a means of keeping control of the populace, and corruption was rampant in government. Arthur’s dad was a kind of artist; he was extremely skilled in calligraphy.

With an education that barely passed the fifth grade and because his father died from torture by the Japanese soldiers as they invaded China, Arthur’s father started working in middle school to maintain the household of five: his mother and four brothers and sisters. Arthur’s fervent wish was to have the next generation of the Liu family as global citizens to contribute to society.

Arthur was his parents’ first son. He was educated in a public school within walking distance from the low-income housing complex where his family lived. Arthur remembered fondly how he held his sister’s hand and strolled to school thirty minutes one way, by themselves.

Life in a low-income complex was busy. With eleven stories, the high-rise was already, at that time, the tallest building in the area. Looking across from the apartment, Arthur could see Kowloon Peninsula clearly, with the Kai Tak Airport sending out passenger and cargo planes to the sky every 6:00 a.m. The roar of these aircrafts served as alarm clocks for the low-income housing complex, and Arthur would dutifully get up and get dressed without waking up his parents.

Having breakfast before school was unheard of, and school lunches did not exist at that time. Arthur would wake up his sister Krista and proceeded to the closest bakery to pick up a Twinkie or cupcake on the way to school. On rare occasions when the family had a major birthday event or during the Chinese New Years when Arthur and his sister would receive red packages with ten-cent coins in them, they would treat themselves for a fish ball or barbecue squid from one of the street vendors.

In the classrooms, instructions were given in Chinese as well as in English because Hong Kong was a British Crown Colony at that time, and bilingual instructions started at the third-grade level. At fifth grade, there is a colony-wide middle school entrance exam, which is available to all primary school students. Arthur was ranked in the top 10 percent and was admitted to a government secondary school called Queen’s College. QC (as it was referred back then) was well-known as the middle school where Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the grandfather of modern-day China, was educated. The school celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary when Arthur entered.

He was simply in awe when he walked into the massive assembly hall and he saw a thousand students wearing white shirts, white short pants, white socks, and white shoes. Almost every student wore a crew cut with hair trimmed close to the scalp at half an inch. The principal, Mr. Williamson, was a graduate of Oxford University in England.

"Students! You are now sitting among the top ten percent of the brightest students in Hong Kong. You are selected to come to this school because of your distinguished achievements as a primary school student. You are here also because we have determined that you are disciplined and honest!

Here is a cane made of split bamboo. It hurts bad if you are being whipped. Your parents have consented that this is proper discipline for you if you are out of line. Mr. Stokes, our vice principal on my right, will see to it that every one of you graduate with honors and go to the University of Hong Kong or better!

Every student sat up straight, looking straight ahead, daring not to blink or to miss any word that was spoken with eloquence.

During the six years in that secondary school, I heard two were caned, but I did not witness them! Arthur told his friends many years later.

Arthur took pride being enrolled in a respected school and studied hard. He put in a lot of time doing homework and extracurricular activities. He joined the school choir and harmonica band, which represented the school, to take home the first place for both entries. Perhaps it was from spending too much time in extracurricular functions, he dropped from the top 20 percent of the class to the bottom 10 percent. He was told he needed to repeat his eighth-grade classes. It was a terrible disappointment to Arthur and his parents. But Mr. and Mrs. Liu never uttered a single word about it. Instead they told him, Arthur. We know exactly why you are sad to miss your classmates being promoted to the next level. But you are the youngest in your class. It may be a good thing that you repeat, so you could mature with friends your age.

However, they knew what the real problem was—television.

In the early 1960, television became the favorite pastime for many people in Hong Kong. Arthur’s neighbor in the low-income complex was a taxi driver. Uncle Frank Lum saved the tips from his midnight runs and bought the first black-and-white television in the entire building. He was a very generous person. Their apartment was a mere two hundred square feet, which was the same size as Arthur’s, but they were willing to leave their corridor windows and door open after dinner, so the neighbors could bring their stools and watch the TV shows from outside their front door and windows.

Arthur fondly remembered watching I Love Lucy, and The Brady Bunch outside the Lum apartment with twelve other children. Being fascinated with the movie box, Arthur’s grade dropped as a result. It was imminent that he had to repeat that eighth grade. Under the British system, if one were to repeat a grade, one must repeat every class regardless if the student passed that period or not. Arthur was actually happy because this repetition would be a breeze as far as studying was concerned, with the exception of one period—mathematics.

Mathematics was actually Arthur’s strong subject. It was facing the same teacher that frightened him. The mathematics teacher was an elderly professor from a technical college in Southern China. Mr. Tseu was one of the immigrants from Chung Shang province where he taught students at a university before the Communist government closed the school, and Mr. Tseu fled one night, swimming across the Pearl River to reach the border to Hong Kong. He was extremely emaciated when he was first hired by Queen’s College, but after a year, he contracted a kidney ailment, and his abdomen was swollen as if it were about to burst. Every student in school dreaded the idea of being in his class.

Mr. Tseu’s teaching methods were unconventional. He believed in humiliation as a motivation to succeed. He would ask a question to the students, spontaneously point at a student, and demand an instant answer. Whoever failed to answer correctly would have to stand up for the rest of the period until he (Queen’s College was an all-boys school) answered the following question correctly. If he failed to give the correct answer, Mr. Tseu would throw a piece of chalk in the direction of the student. When the student bent down to pick up the piece of chalk, Mr. Tseu would be already standing in front of him to perform the most humiliating ritual:

Paul! Is this the second time you answered my question wrong?

Yes, Mr. Tseu!

Did you pick up the piece of chalk?

Yes, sir!

Do you remember what to you do with the chalk when you answer a math question wrong the second time in class?

Yes, sir! I draw a straight line on my forehead.

Any objections, class?

No one dared to laugh or utter a sound as the student proceeded to draw a straight line across his brow and walked to the designated wall where five others were already standing.

Arthur was thus punished for more than five occasions the first time he took the class. Although he knew exactly what questions Mr. Tseu was going to ask next the second time he attended the mathematics period, he vowed that to stand at the desk was as far as he would go. No more chalk marks on my forehead! he declared to himself.

Under the British education system, the teacher is god in the classroom. The principal would always back the teacher even if the students complained. And the parents never questioned the principal’s decisions. How the times have changed!

As expected, Arthur, at the end of the year when he repeated the eighth grade, was ranked second in a class of forty. His best subject was mathematics. When he entered the science bowl, representing Queen’s College in the territory-wide competition, the school was placed second only to King’s College (another government school in the western region).

Under these competitive and strenuous conditions, Arthur thrived, and his parents were exceedingly proud. Three years later, it looked as if he was destined for college. Arthur’s class was designated 6LM (the precollege lower-level class destined to study medicine). Every period of Arthur’s was advanced placement subjects and only in the science disciplines: chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics. Arthur’s class was excused from studying English literature, social studies or history because they belonged to the 6LA (arts) students. The early segregation of students was considered beneficial even at the high school level. It looked as if Arthur’s days dealing with the arts were over until one day!

On a Saturday morning, Arthur woke up from his bed when he heard the bells of an ice cream truck. There was quite a commotion outside. Looking from the ninth floor, Arthur could see many children and adults gathered around not an ice cream truck but what looked like a circus performer. His apparel was one of a jester in the Chinese movies. He was twirling a long red ribbon in one hand and ringing a bell-drum combination instrument in the other. Arthur covered his pajamas with a jacket and walked down to the street vendor and meandered his way to the front.

Apparently, this circus man was from the north. He was at least six feet three with very tanned features. As soon as he saw he got everyone’s attention, he put his right hand in a wooden box, no bigger than three feet by three feet and pulled out an animal: a brown chimpanzee with a chain around its neck. As the vendor was giving commands, the chimp somersaulted, rolled, and jumped through hoops of knives and fire. Everyone cheered as the chimp performed, and a shower of coins descended on a basket strategically placed in the middle of the circle. Arthur’s attention was however shifted to the display of dolls hanging from the wagon attached to the monkey.

No sooner than Arthur was about to ask what these dolls were, the jester sounded his gong and announced that his real show was about to begin. Pointing at the dolls on the wagon, he yelled, "Hear ye, hear ye, my friends! This is one show you will never forget. Even my chimp friend has never seen this before.

"On this wagon, you see my original work of art. These dolls looked like they were made of porcelain, but they were actually made of cookie dough!

I have stained the flour with different colors and made dolls out of them!

On closer examination, Arthur saw these were no ordinary Silly Putty kind of dolls. Each of these were colorfully dressed, well-known historical figures of Chinese folklore—the Monkey King, the Yellow Emperor, the Buddha, the Goddess of Mercy, and even a replica of the lion at the entrance of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank!

Then Arthur realized he was facing a traveling artist. This artist (named Jou See Fu) then proceeded to approach the children in the front row, asking individually what he/she would like to have made. Within seconds, Master Jou created for each child three-inch-tall figurines of cowboys, Indians, trains, elephants, giraffes, horses, and a Mickey Mouse.

Arthur couldn’t believe his eyes. He rapidly went upstairs, broke his piggy bank, and ordered from the artist a figurine of General Kwan, the famous red-faced general who signified courage, justice, and honesty. Arthur wished he took a photograph of this incredible work of art then, but his family couldn’t afford a camera at that time. The beautiful figurine melted in the summer heat the following morning. The cookie-dough artist never came by again or did anyone ever hear of a Master Jou!

Many years later, when Arthur visited the cartoon graphic-artists’ studio at Disneyland, Arthur noticed that was how the cartoon characters were created. Using soft clay, models of the actors, animals, humans, and even monsters were made. Then, three-dimensional images were created on the computer. Using modern technologies, characters of any size and shape may be created and placed on-screen, with movements looking real as ever.

Master Jou, if he is still alive today, would probably be 110 years old. Arthur felt so fortunate to have met such an artist. At the age of 62, Arthur made a three-dimensional figure of himself, in memory of Jou See Fu.

As my father always told me, don’t rely on being an artist for a living. People will only notice you after you are dead! Arthur realized the truth in it early in life.

Perhaps Arthur may never distinguish himself as an artist, but he knew for sure, a life balanced between science and the arts would be much more worthwhile.

Call it fate or fortune, Arthur, despite a GPA of 3.12 when he graduated from high school, was denied entry to the University of Hong Kong. Arthur’s father’s dream of his first son to become a doctor was abandoned for good. Arthur Senior, however, redirected his interest to his growing children.

Nineteen ninety-seven was the year Arthur Senior was concerned about. He knew back in 1967 that thirty years later, Britain would return the colony of Hong Kong to China. Like most elders those days whose families experienced torture by the Communist regime, he was extremely skeptical about Communist China taking back Hong Kong under its governance. He planned to send his eldest son to the United States for college.

Impossible! most of his relatives told him. You neither have the cash nor the connections in America. How do you manage to attain such a dream?

Dad was not a quitter! Arthur told his friends. He consolidated his timberwork shop at Aberdeen in Hong Kong Island, obtained a supplementary loan from his younger brother, and bought a ticket for me to go to University of Hawaii.

Arthur remembered the days before he left the only island he knew his entire life. Everything seemed so precious as he took a last look at the harbor. The airplanes that soared to the skies every ten minutes made him wonder if he would ever return, and as what?

The salty air that brushed against the shore smelled refreshing. The loud bargaining at the open markets seemed like an orchestra instead of being a noisy clatter. How his perspective changed as his days drew nearer for his departure.

Fortuitously also, one of Arthur’s acquaintances in school, Ken, called him from Hawaii: Arthur! Wonderful news. I have a host family set up for you. The Lees have a son in the ninth grade at the St. Louis High School. They need a math and chemistry home tutor urgently. I thought you might be the perfect person for the job.

This phone call happened only three weeks before Arthur was scheduled to leave Hong Kong for Hawaii. Arthur Senior was much relieved. Senior had always been an optimist!

But what Arthur found out about his dad was a bigger surprise.

Arthur knew his father was a hardworking merchant. However, he had never seen his dad at work. Senior left home at 6:00 a.m. before anyone finished their