Marine Corps Col. Daniel Yoo
Marine Corps Col. Daniel Yoo will be sworn in as one of a few Korean American general in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Yoo is a U.S. Marine Corps fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal in July for outstanding performance as a commander of a U.S. unit during his deployment in Afghanistan between July 2009 and April 2010.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Arizona State University and earned a master’s degree from the Naval War College. He was a national security affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, at Stanford University. ♦
Editor’s note: This article originally stated that Col. Daniel Yoo is the first Korean American general, but as reader Mark commented below, that is not the case. We apologize for this mistake!
Mark said: “Each quarter JAVA features two Asian Americans who have attained the highest ranks in the US armed forces. The present count is that 103 Asian Hawaiian Pacific Islander Americans have been promoted to generals and admirals, including General Eric Shinseki of Kauai, Hawaii, who wore four stars as the US Army’s 34th Chief of Staff. Of the 103, 59 served in the US Army, 23 in the US Air Force, 17 in the US Navy, 2 in the Public Health Service, and one each in the US Marines and US Coast guard. Broken down in another way, 43 are Japanese Americans, 26 Chinese Americans, 20 Hawaii Pacific Islands, 10 Filipino Americans and four Korean Americans.”
See article dated October 2010: http://www.javadc.org/images/JAVA%20Advocate%20Jun-Dec%202010.pdf
Admin,
I wish NW Asian Weekly will consider publishing a story about Asian Americans at the military service academies.
At West Point, the Naval Academy, and Air Force Academy Asian Americans are highly overrepresented. They are 9-10% of the Class of 2014 at these academies.
Most people assume that Asian Americans wish to avoid the military but going by these numbers Asian Americans choose the military as a leading choice among colleges.
I hope this paper devotes an article to the subject.
West Point Class of 2014: http://www.westpoint.edu/Dcomm/PressReleasesbd/nr41-10class_of_2014_RDay.html
Naval Academy Class of 2014: http://www.usna.edu/admissions/USNA%202014%20Class%20Portrait.pdf
Air Force Academy Class of 2014: http://csmng.com/blog/2010/07/02/focus-on-newcomers-class-of-2014/
Just a correction. Before him there have been at least 4 Korean generals or admirals in the US military.
“Each quarter JAVA features two Asian Americans who have attained the highest ranks in the US armed forces. The present
count is that 103 Asian Hawaiian Pacific Islander Americans have been promoted to generals and admirals, including
General Eric Shinseki of Kauai, Hawaii, who wore four stars as the US Army’s 34th Chief of Staff. Of the 103, 59 served in
the US Army, 23 in the US Air Force, 17 in the US Navy, 2 in the Public Health Service, and one each in the US Marines
and US Coast guard. Broken down in another way, 43 are Japanese Americans, 26 Chinese Americans, 20 Hawaii Pacific
Islands, 10 Filipino Americans and four Korean Americans.”
See article dated October 2010: http://www.javadc.org/images/JAVA%20Advocate%20Jun-Dec%202010.pdf
Thanks so much for pointing this out, Mark. I’m going to add your comment as a note to the article.