To get her 4th degree black belt rank, Jolee AlVillar had to travel to South Korea and pass a test by a grandmaster in the Korean martial art of Taekwondo.

During the Air Force Research Laboratory employee’s 10-day visit, she earned Sa Dan certification and registrated at the Kukiwon World Taekwondo Headquarters in Seoul.

This was not Ms. AlVillar’s first visit to the "Land of the Morning Calm." From the mid-1990s to 2001 she worked for U.S. Forces Korea as a housing manager at a military installation in Seoul. During that period she studied Taekwondo under 9th degree black belt grandmaster Kim Kyoung Yeon.

Ms. AlVillar said Mr. Kim, who has been training U.S. troops in Taekwondo for more than 30 years, was tested her.

Speaking with obvious respect and admiration, she said, "Mr. Kim is a very humble man who does not like being called ‘master,’ although the 63-year-old is a grandmaster, instructor and judge at the Kukiwon World Taekwondo Headquarters.”

She also said she’d forgotten how grueling and punishing Korean martial arts instruction can be.

"I was quickly reminded of what I had forgotten,” she said. “It took two days of bed rest to recover from the demands the test put on my heart, lungs -- and every muscle and joint in my body. I took hot baths to relax the pain."

The facility engineering technician with the laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate found the trip extra rewarding. At the airport she was met by retired Army Sgt. Major Jon Johnston and his wife, Jade, a professor of physical education at Tongwon College. Mrs. Johnston, a master aerobics trainer, had been Ms. Alvillar’s aerobics instructor when she lived in Korea. A certified aerobics instructor, Mrs. Johnson allowed Ms. Alvillar to attend a locally televised aerobics competition she organized and her master trainer seminars for instructors.

"I had a great time in South Korea,” Ms. Alvillar said. “But it’s good to be back in Albuquerque and the research lab."

(Courtesy of Air Force Materiel Command News Service)