Liberty, freedom: An Airman’s journey

  • Published
  • By Maj. Dani Johnson
  • 5th Bomb Wing Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. (AFPN) --  Imagine living in a society where the length of a man’s hair or a woman’s skirt is determined by the government; where liberty and freedom are nonexistent to the majority. Sound far-fetched? Not for one Airman here; it is how he grew up.

Chaplain (Capt.) Jin Choi, 5th Bomb Wing chaplain, was born in South Korea in 1964 and spent his first 19 years in Seoul under the reign of President Park Chung-hee.

“(President Park) was a military dictator and took over the country for more than 20 years. There was nobody to compete with him,” Chaplain Choi said. “He ran the whole country, and since the military was in charge, whatever he wanted, happened.”

The United Methodist chaplain realized something was not right in his birth country when he was in junior high, and then more obviously, while in high school.

“If you said something against the president or the government, you would just disappear somewhere, your career and possibly your family would be ruined,” he said. “You were told what to wear, what to look like. With the guys, if your hair was too long, the cops would get you, and since they carried scissors, they would cut your hair right there on the street.

“Everything was regulated. We didn’t wear uniforms in elementary school, but in junior high and high school we did,” the chaplain said. “I went to the first westernized high school started by an American Methodist minister. When dignitaries came in, we would have to go out into the streets and wave flags. I didn’t like it. One time I just went home, and later the teacher took roll call and I wasn’t there. When I got back to school the next day, I got a beating. Your liberty and freedom was very limited.”

Chaplain Choi immigrated to the United States with his parents, brother and sister in 1984. He entered college and then went to seminary.

“I was gung-ho. I was really happy to get out of (South Korea),” he said. “The process was not fast; the paperwork started when I was about 14 years old and took (about) five years. We kept waiting and waiting for when we would get to go to America.”

After finishing seminary, the new pastor was sent to a “deserted” area in upstate New York outside of the Catskills Mountains about two hours away from his family in New York City.

“My wife, two girls and I spent two years in the Catskills and wanted a church in the city close to family; as a new pastor, I felt I had paid my dues,” he said. “The process was slow, and I wasn’t getting what I wanted, and I started thinking about the military families who weren’t near their families. I began looking at becoming a chaplain. While I was looking, I got a call from the bishop about an opening on Long Island, so I pulled away from the idea of becoming a chaplain.”

Later, after a discussion with a retired Army chaplain about being a military chaplain serving those who were serving their country, Chaplain Choi was inspired, he said. One day, a friend called and told him to look at an announcement for chaplains with the New York Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing in Westhampton Beach.

“I didn’t even know there was an Air National Guard base on the island. I applied, and this was my first contact with the Air Force chaplaincy,” he said. “I was the youngest candidate at 36 years, and the wing chaplain chose me. I joined in December 2000.

“I stepped into the Air National Guard, and it was so nice -- it was like family,” the chaplain said. “The chaplains and chaplains’ assistants were all in one area mingling together. It was a nice experience; we took care of families.”

Chaplain Choi had served the civilian church on Long Island for five years but was not sure whether he wanted to continue, so he called the Air Force active-duty chaplains personnel office and was told he had missed the selection board. Shortly after, however, he was called and told there was another board. He applied, and just one day before his 40th birthday he entered active duty.

“It’s been a very interesting process I’ve gone through. I was in a very repressive society, then came to America and was like a bird released from its cage,” he said.

“I believe how you are brought up -- I had three years of military training in high school -- comes back later, and you start kind of missing it. When you are a child or teenager, your early years of training are so important,” Chaplain Choi said. “I’m comfortable with that, and since I went to a high school where I received basic military training, I was used to (the military). While I was reluctant at first, in the back of my mind I knew I could deal with it.”

Liberty and freedom are two things the chaplain does not take for granted, he said. He knows there is no liberty or freedom without boundaries. He enjoys the chance to serve Airmen by using God to empower and strengthen them to go on with their life.

“I think within American people, especially the young people, we abuse liberty and freedom so much. We often forget there is a responsibility to keep liberty and freedom, and (we) take it for granted,” he said. “We don’t think about the so many people out there, especially in third-world countries, people who don’t have liberty and freedom. We must continue to fight and work with them.”