hechavez
White Belt
My father was a Captain in the U.S. Army in the 1st Calvary during the United Nations Police Action in the Korean War. In December of 1951, in Korea, my father from Ginatilan, Cebu, one lieutenant an African-American, and two more lieutenants of Italian descent led over a 100 troops of various European-American descents. My father, Captain Honorato Singco Echavez was told by his superiors to take a Chinese machine gun position on the top of the hill. My father disagreed and told them that there would be a heavy loss of life. He was threatened with court-martial if he did not. He told his men of the situation. So he ordered fixed bayonets to his company since they were low on ammunition. He and his four lieutenants led the company up the hill when it was snowing and cold. They ran out of ammunition quickly. By the time they got to the top of the hill there was only 30 men left in the 1st Calvary company with heavy casualties. They captured 21 Chinese Troops who surrendered. Many of the casualties made it to MASH. All of the company were very brave. My father got the G.I. Bill and graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a Masters of Science in Sanitary Engineering. He got a job in the WHO in the United Nations and was assigned to Nepal and Burma. After the U.N. he got a job as a Public Health Engineer in Baltimore and later in Los Angeles County. He was later the President of the Filipino Senior Citizens in Los Angeles. He died of a massive heart attack when he had Lou Gehrig's disease. His body was cremated and the ashes scattered around the Pacific Ocean. Shortly after my father as an ancestral spirit visited the house that my wife and I bought at around 2 in the morning. I shook hands with him, he was real. We talked for about five minutes, then he told me that I had to get ready to go to work. So I checked my alarm clock and went back to sleep. This was mostly informative so I could share that ancestral spirits are real and so is the after-life. I am a Baha'i by faith, and we believe in ancestral spirits and the after-life. I got many, many years more to live with my wife. Long live the Martial Arts!
