Your Dad is pure, distilled awesome.

Hero.

I'd love to meet your father. The beer would be on me, in exchange for the stories.

Your dad's an amazing person, subby.

Give your mom my regards.

Congrats to your family for such an awesome dad and a big thank you for making sure his story did not get lost like so many others.

Good story. Call HBO and get them to make a movie. I would seriously pay for the $9 ticket, $15 popcorn and $12 soda to watch a truly great man get the recognition he richly deserves.

Kudos to you and your family.

/Mad props

What an awesome read for memorial day weekend.

Your dad seems like a genuinely awesome man. He kinda reminds me of my grandfather, except he still doesn't talk about anything from the war, preferring to keep it locked inside. Still, his knowledge of random languages is astounding sometimes.

It really is an interesting story. And that Korean war haircut photo looks straight out of a M*A*S*H episode.

Cool story, bro. Seriously. As one proud son of a war hero to another, props.

Hero. A goddamned hero.

/*salutes*

That was very interesting.
I'm definitely going to try and watch it.

My late grandfather from the Philippines learned English by helping them against the Japanese.

My other grandfather didn't really talk about it much.

That's one thing I find sad though. So many stories from that war, that will never be told, because they were just too painful to tell and their tellers took them to the grave.

Oh sure. Thanks a lot. After the day I've had you got me crying like a little girl. Tell your Dad Thank you from a 53 year old former Marine.

JonnyBGoode: That's one thing I find sad though. So many stories from that war, that will never be told, because they were just too painful to tell and their tellers took them to the grave.

Sometimes, those stories have no place among the living. Letting the stories die is sometimes the least sad thing that can be done.

Nice.
Much respect.

I hope this gets into the Library of Congress. It's a story that deserves to be saved.

Can you tell me when this will be available online.. I don't live in the US but would really like to watch it.

My great Uncle was captured in Hong Kong with the CO of the Winnipeg Rifles and spent the next 4 years a guest of the Imperial Japanese Army. I heard stories but I can't pretend to fathom the experiences. Your Father is a remarkable man, I'm glad his voice will endure.

Joelogon: I'm biased, because he's my dad, but I think it's a pretty interesting story. Especially the part about the secret diary he kept in the POW camp, which I didn't learn about until fairly recently. And my sister made a documentary about it, which airs in the NYC area on Sunday on PBS.

/stubmitter, obvs

a) really awesome, both about your dad and your sister documenting it

b) I didn't learn what my grandmother went through in WWII until this one random day, just before the senility really took hold of her, where my brother and I stopped by her house for some reason or another. And for the first time and spontaneously, she started telling us stories... about how the Nazis came into her village and took all the able bodied teenage boys and girls, how she never saw the vast majority of her family again (only two cousins left that we know of), how she managed to survive the forced labor, how she married my grandfather just to GTFO of there and come to America, etc... I knew the sacrifices she made to raise my mom and her 5 brothers and sisters after she was in the US but only had the dimmest notion of what else she had gone through to prepare her for that.

Something she totally and completely avoided talking about her entire life, except in that one window where her mind hadn't gone yet but where she was starting to lose her inhibitions, I suppose. Or maybe in retrospect she knew if she didn't say it it would never be said.

Anyway.

Determined to stay in the country he'd come to love, Loong served three years during the Korean War as a tank driver and gunner with the 25th Division. Despite his service, and honorable discharge, he was told when he returned home to the Bronx that he would be deported. So Loong drove to Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1953 and knocked on the doors of congressmen.

Finally, Republican Rep. James Auchincloss, who represented part of Monmouth County, wrote legislation to arrange Loong's stay in the U.S. He became a citizen in 1956.

your dad sounds freaking awesome, subby.

/happy Memorial Day weekend, folks.
//this is what it's for

meddleRPI: JonnyBGoode: That's one thing I find sad though. So many stories from that war, that will never be told, because they were just too painful to tell and their tellers took them to the grave.

Sometimes, those stories have no place among the living. Letting the stories die is sometimes the least sad thing that can be done.

This.

There's more than enough stories out there describing the horrors of war, let the dead keep their secrets.

That said, utmost respect to those with the bravery to relive those moments and share their experiences with those who can only imagine what they went through.

Subby, people like your father make the world a better place.

Sorry to hear you're from New Jersey.

Kidding. Your dad seems awesome, by the way.

Joelogon: I'm biased, because he's my dad, but I think it's a pretty interesting story. Especially the part about the secret diary he kept in the POW camp, which I didn't learn about until fairly recently. And my sister made a documentary about it, which airs in the NYC area on Sunday on PBS.

/stubmitter, obvs

I've called Sherrif Joe. Despite your alleged "acts of congoress" I've yet to see evidents of ur fathers' citizenship.