Why do you serve? Family spurs colonel

  • Published
  • By Col. Kenneth T. Furukawa
  • 349th Aerospace Medicine Squadron Commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  "Why do you serve?"  How many times have we all been asked that simple question?  What motivated, and probably still motivates, you to serve in the military services of the United States?

I, myself, am embarrassed at times to answer with the short answers of "for my country," "it's my duty," "patriotism," or even "because I accepted an Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps scholarship." It is even more than "I serve to prepare the next generation of American military and civic leaders for the challenges our nation faces in the future." Those reasons are part of my answer, but it is even deeper, for it is about my family.

While I spent Mother's Day with my parents, I was again asked this question by my parents.  After a discussion that even dredged up my decision to apply for an Army ROTC scholarship in high school, I finally realized the genesis of my desire to serve - family values.

My parents are the children of Japanese immigrants and, like so many, their lives were changed forever by the events of World War II.  Prior to that, I think they believed they would participate in the American dream on even footing with many of the children who attended school with them.  But after Dec. 7, 1941, they never felt like "true Americans" again. 

It is not that they felt that they could not participate on the playing field of life, but they felt that they had to do so much better to be on that field.  Over the years, my grandparents and parents dealt with many inequities and injustices and, in general, they recovered. In the case of my parents, they even prospered in the end.  The experiences and values of my grandparents and parents became the cornerstones of how they raised my family and they became the life lessons handed down to me.  I was taught many lessons by my grandparents, but the following are the ones that really stuck:

-It was my duty to give my best effort to my family.
-It was my duty to honor my forebearers and their beliefs.
-It was my duty to make my country a better place. Even though the United States government had, at that time, removed the rights and liberties bestowed upon almost all other ethnic groups, my grandparents were convinced that there was no better place in the world to live.

I was always struck by the conviction of that last lesson from all four of my grandparents, especially their desire to prevent such a travesty from ever happening again.  To this day I don't see how they could have seen the military as a moderating force, or a force for good, but they did, and I do today.

"Duty, honor, country" is the time-honored motto of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and a cornerstone of values I was taught as a child.  Just a coincidence?  I don't think so.  These basic lessons formed the core of my identity as a developing citizen and member of American society and this simple understanding of my role in a larger whole made my life so much easier and filled with purpose as I developed into the adult I am today.  Unique?  No, I have met so many good citizens in my life who were raised to a similar set of basic values as children and young adults, from all walks of life and backgrounds.  This motto may be fitting for young men and women being trained to be military officers, but it is just as applicable to any successful citizen.  It is good citizens who make good Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen. 

So my best answer to the question "Why do you serve?" is "family values."  What is yours?  While you think about this, honor your parents on their respective holidays. They made you into who you are today.