Our Veterans
Ock Wing Lee - Army
Technical Sergeant Ock Wing Lee served in Shanghai with the occupation troops. He was a Quartermaster Supply Technician 821 in the China-Burma-India Theater. A law passed in October 1942 enabled aliens to be conscripted into the U.S. military. In February 1943, at age 32, Ock Wing was inducted into the Army. He always believed that a man should do the best he could under any circumstances; this attitude helped him during six years of service. Ock Wing got along with members of his company, and his earnestness and attention to his duties attracted his superiors’ attention. He rose from buck private to Sergeant First Class. At one point, Ock Wing was a candidate for gunnery school. His performance in the preliminary skills test had gained him the recommendations of several officers. He qualified in every aspect but one—his alien status. Although he became a naturalized citizen later during his service, he’d missed the school deadline. He abandoned the goal of gunnery school after that but he never forgot his lost chance. In 1946, Ock Wing reenlisted. As an immigrant with no stateside commitments, he found Army life in some ways preferable to civilian life. Reenlistment entitled soldiers to three months paid furlough, which raised his hope to reunite with his mother, if she was alive. He hadn’t seen her since immigrating to America 18 years before. This furlough would give him time to see her. Ock Wing reunited joyfully though briefly with his mother and married Kuo Wah Jung in China. They raised five children Robert, Barbara, Betty, Ronald, and Brenda in New York, operated a laundry, and owned rental property until retiring to Oakland, California. He believed in America’s opportunities and supported family members’ and friends’ immigration petitions. Ock Wing died in 1987.
Frank Richard Eng - Army Air Forces
Major Frank Richard Eng was born in Watsonville, California and grew up in San Antonio, Texas. He earned his amateur and commercial pilot licenses in the 1930s and delivered air mail throughout the region before joining the U.S. Army Air Force in 1943 as a 1st Lieutenant with the 261st Army Air Force Base Unit, becoming the first Chinese American instructor for the Army in Texas. He served at the Air Corps primary flying school (Fred Harman Training Center) near Ballinger, Texas as an aircraft, instrument, and gunnery instructor and interpreter for aviation cadets and foreign officer trainees. His students would go around the world to become pilots and instructors of aircraft such as P-47s and B-17s. After World War Two he was honorably discharged in 1945, received an appointment to be an officer of the Army Reserve Corps, and was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1947. He belonged to an entrepreneurial family of grocery store managers and was the owner of Monticello Market, a grocery and meat refrigeration and processing plant for San Antonio residents and hunters.
Shuey Lew- Army Air Forces
In 1932, a quiet and well-behaved young 9 year old boy named Shuey Lew, left Sun Yuen Village in Toishan for “Gold Mountain”. Upon his arrival, he was detained and subjected to extensive and lengthy interrogation by government officials for months at Angel Island Immigration Center because of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Eventually, he was released to San Francisco. At that time, Americans were still suffering from the effects of the Great Depression, so work and food were very hard to find. He attended English language school during the day and after school, he worked a variety of odd jobs as a shoeshine boy, and cleaned bars and restaurants with his Chinatown buddies (Mom shared he did everything his buddies did which was why he joined the army).
By 1941, World War II had broken out. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and invaded China. In 1943, Shuey and his Chinatown friends enlisted in the United States Army. Back in those days, the military was segregated. So he served with other Chinese Americans in the United States Army.
Because of Private Shuey Lew’s calm and respectful demeanor, he was selected by his superiors to be trained as an airplane and engine mechanic. He inspected, repaired, and replaced aircraft wings, fuselage, stabilizers, power plants, propellers and landing gear. He became a part of the Army Air Corps, the 407thAir Service Squadron whose mission was to provide aircraft maintenance in support of the Fourteenth Air Force (the Flying Tigers). The 407th Air Service Squadron was involved in the Asiatic Pacific Theatre: China Offensive, Burma, India Theatre of Operations. Soon, Shuey Lew was back in China, but this time as a member of the Flying Tigers ground crew.
Victorious in Asia, Shuey received an American Campaign Medal, an Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, the WWII Victory Medal, a Good Conduct Medal, and the TWX WD45.
In 1946, Private Shuey Lew was honorably discharged.
In 1948, he returned to China, where he met and married Linda Lee, the love of his life.
As a civilian, Shuey Lew proudly worked for 35 years as an aircraft mechanic at Alameda Naval Air Station.
He was a devoted and loving husband to Linda for 69 years until his death in 2016. He was the ultimate role model to their nine daughters, showing them what love and stability was, how success could be achieved through hard work and determination, and how happiness could still be experienced despite life’s challenges. In his lifetime, he was able to financially support and proudly witness all of his daughters graduate from college. He was also able to walk each of them down the aisle, and play with all 20 of his grandchildren. We miss him dearly everyday.