Kurt Chew-Een Lee — Marine war hero
Only a few weeks ago, retired Maj. Kurt ChewEen Lee was the honorary grand marshal of San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Parade.
He rode up Market Street and through San Francisco’s Chinatown in a World War II jeep dressed in the full Marine Corps uniform he wore as a young man. He was both a war hero and a pioneer. Maj. Lee was the first non-white regular officer in Marine Corps history and he was a hero of a bitter battle in the Korean War.
The Chinese New Year Parade would be his last. Maj. Lee’s body was found in his apartment in Arlington, Va., on Monday. He had died alone, of natural causes, at the age of 88.
Kurt Lee was born in San Francisco on Jan. 21, 1926. He was raised in Sacramento and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1944. He was assigned at first to learn Japanese and serve as an interpreter. But Maj. Lee, then a sergeant, wanted to serve in a combat role, in part, he said, because he felt Chinese Americans had been portrayed as weak and mild in the media.
At the end of the war, he went to officer training school and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He was the first non-white person to hold a regular commission in the Marine Corps.
When the Korean War broke out, in 1950, Lee was assigned to command a raw and untrained machine gun platoon and shipped to Korea.
“He had to whip them into shape,’’ said Roger Dong, a former Air Force officer who is a member of Cathay Post of the American Legion. “He was the smallest man in the platoon, but he was the toughest guy there.’’
A first lieutenant by then, he was a fierce disciplinarian. It paid off in combat. He and his platoon were in the battle to recapture Seoul, and then moved north with the 1st Marine Division.
The division was overrun by Chinese forces. Outnumbered and cut off, they began a retreat from the Chosin reservoir area.
This is where Kurt Lee became a legend; he was, said Gen. Ray Davis, the bravest Marine he ever knew. At one point, as Maj. Lee’s platoon was under fierce attack by Chinese forces, he led from the front, drew enemy fire and shouted at the Chinese in Mandarin, “to cause confusion,” he later said.
He was twice wounded and sent to a hospital, but he and another Marine stole a jeep and went back to the front. This time, with his arm in a sling, Lt. Lee led his troops through a snowstorm in 30 below zero weather to assist another unit holding a critical pass.
“They were outnumbered 10 to one,’’ Dong said, “and he led 500 guys single file through a blizzard guided only by a small compass.’’
Maj. Lee was wounded again and this time put out of action. But his bravery was credited with helping to save the First Marine Division.
He received the Silver Star, the Navy Cross and the Purple Heart for his actions, among other decorations.
“I was never afraid to die,’’ he said. “I was adamant that my death be admirable, (and) be of some consequence to my race.”
He served in other Marine Corps posts, including a tour in Vietnam, and retired from the Marines as a major in 1968.
He worked for the New York Life Insurance Co. and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
Two of his brothers also earned military honors. Chew-Mon Lee, who served in the Army in Korea, received the Distinguished Service Cross, and Chew Fan Lee received a Bronze Star for his service as an Army medic.
Maj. Lee is survived by Nicole Lee, of Southern California, an adopted daughter; his brother, Chew Fan Lee; and his sisters, Faustina Lee, Betty Mar and Juliet Yokoe, all of Sacramento.