Kurt Chew - Een Lee Major Kurt Chew - Een Lee ( Chinese : 呂超然 ; born 1926 ) was the first regular non - white U . S . Marine Corps officer , and the first of Asian descent . Lee earned the Navy Cross under fire in Korea in September 1950 , serving in the 1st Battalion 7th Marines . Lee and his younger brothers Chew - Fan Lee and Chew - Mon Lee all earned bravery medals in the Korean War . Early life . In 1926 , Chew - Een Lee was born in San Francisco but grew up in Sacramento , California . Lee ' s father was M . Young Lee , born in Guangzhou ( Canton ) , emigrating in the 1920s to the Territory of Hawaii and then California . Once established in America , M . Young Lee returned to China to honor an arranged marriage . He brought his bride to California and worked as a distributor of farm produce to hotels and restaurants . Lee ' s brother Chew - Fan Lee was born in 1927 in Sacramento . In 1928 , a third son was born to the family : Chew - Mon Lee . The Lee family included three daughters : Faustina , Betty and Juliet . Military career . World War II . At the time of the Attack on Pearl Harbor , Chew - Een Lee was a high school student going by the nickname " Kurt " , associated with the Junior Reserve Officers ' Training Corps ( Junior ROTC ) . In 1944 when he was an 18 - year - old student of mining engineering , Lee joined the U . S . Marine Corps ( USMC ) . Small for a recruit , Lee was about tall , and around , but he was wiry and muscular . At the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego , Lee was assigned the task of learning the language . At graduation , he was retained as the language class instructor , a decision that disappointed Lee because he wanted to ship out and fight in the war . He earned the rank of sergeant and had just been accepted to officer training class when World War II ended . From October 1945 to April 1946 , Lee was enrolled in The Basic School , newly reactivated for USMC officer training . Second Lieutenant Lee graduated to become the first non - white officer and the first Asian - American officer in the Marine Corps . He deployed to Guam and China to interrogate Japanese prisoners of war . Korean War . At the start of the Korean War , First Lieutenant Lee was in command of the 1st Platoon , Company B , 1st Battalion , 7th Marine Regiment training at Camp Pendleton under Colonel Homer Litzenberg . Soon , his unit received notice that it would ship out for the war zone at the beginning of September . Lee wanted to set a strong example of a fighting Chinese American . He said he " wanted to dispel the notion about the Chinese being meek and obsequious . " He did not expect to survive the war , and intended his death to " be honorable , be spectacular " . Lee ' s brother Chew - Mon Lee had by this time joined the U . S . Army and was also training for Korea . Lee described the difficulty of leaving home as the family ' s first - born son : Battle of Inchon . Lee ' s unit shipped out on September 1 , 1950 . For two weeks he drilled his men day and night on the deck of the ship , enduring derision from the other platoon leaders . After arriving in Japan for final battle preparations , Lee ' s superiors tried to reassign him as staff officer handling translation duties . Lee insisted that he was only there to " fight communists " , and was allowed to retain command of his platoon . The 1st Battalion 7th Marines , including Lee , landed at Inchon on September 21 , 1950 , to attack the North Koreans and force them to retreat northwards . The People ' s Republic of China sent troops to stiffen the North Korean fighting response . On the night of November 2 – 3 in the Sudong Gorge , Lee ' s unit was attacked by Chinese forces . Lee kept his men focused by directing them to shoot at the enemy ' s muzzle flash es . Following this , Lee single - handedly advanced upon the enemy front and attacked their positions one by one to draw their fire and reveal themselves . His men fired at the muzzle flashes and inflicted casualties , forcing the enemy to retreat . While advancing , Lee shouted to the enemy in Mandarin Chinese to sow confusion and then attacked with hand grenade s and gunfire . Lee was wounded in the knee and in the morning light was shot in the right elbow by a sniper , shattering the bones . He was evacuated to a M . A . S . H . unit ( an army field hospital ) outside of Hamhung . For bravely attacking the enemy and saving his men , Lee was awarded the Navy Cross , the second highest honor given to U . S . Marines for combat bravery . Lee was under hospital care for five days when he learned he was to be sent to Japan for recuperation . Unauthorized , he and another wounded marine took an army jeep and drove it back to his unit , walking the last when the jeep ran out of gas . He was assigned to command the 2nd Rifle Platoon whose officer had been wounded . Lee exercised his platoon in combat maneuvers while his arm was in a sling . This extra training helped his platoon take a leading role in heavy fighting a month later . Some time in mid - November 1950 , " Kurt " Lee met up with his brother U . S . Army First Lieutenant Chew - Mon Lee at a marine field headquarters . Both men had been wounded and were resting up before further battle . The " Sacramento Bee " published a photograph and a brief report of the meeting . Chew - Mon Lee addressed his brother respectfully as " daigo " , meaning " elder brother " , and gave him a gift of army - issue 30 - round " banana " clip magazines which could be taped together to supply 60 rounds of carbine ammunition before reloading . This was regarded as superior to the USMC regulation 15 - round clips then in service . A week or two later , on November 30 , 1950 , Chew - Mon Lee performed heroically in battle , earning the Distinguished Service Cross . Battle of Chosin Reservoir . Late on December 2 after several days of exhausting combat during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir , Lee ' s platoon was given the task of spearheading a 500 - man thrust against the Chinese forces in an effort to relieve the outnumbered Fox Company of 2nd Battalion 7th Marines trapped on Fox Hill , part of Toktong Pass and strategic to controlling the Chosin Reservoir road . Lee ' s relief force was given heavier loads to carry through the snow , up and down lightly wooded hills , through extreme cold ( −20 °F , −29 °C ) , and under the very limited visibility of snow blizzard and darkness . Lieutenant Colonel Ray Davis , commanding officer of 1st Battalion , had no instructions for Lieutenant Lee on how to accomplish the mission except to stay off the roads with their heavily reinforced roadblocks . As point man of 2nd Rifle Platoon in Baker Company , Lee used only his compass to guide his way , leading 1st Battalion in single file . Suddenly pinned down by heavy enemy fire coming from a rocky hill , Lee refused to be delayed in his mission . He directed the men to attack the hill with " marching fire " , a stratagem used by General George S . Patton in which troops continue to advance as they apply just enough suppressive fire to keep the enemy ' s heads down . Upon reaching the rocky hill , Lee and the battalion charged , attacking enemy soldiers in their foxholes . Lee , with his right arm still in a cast , shot two enemy soldiers on his way to the top . When he reached the top , he noticed that the other side of the hill was covered with enemy foxholes facing the other way in expectation of an attack from the road , but the foxholes were now empty and the enemy soldiers were over away in rout because of the fearfully sudden 1st Battalion attack from their rear . Following this success , communication was established with nearby Fox Company on Fox Hill . 1st Battalion directed mortar fire against the enemy and called in an airstrike , then Lee led Baker Company forward in an attack which forced a path to Fox Company . During this attack Lee took a bullet to the upper part of his right arm , above the cast on his elbow . Regrouping his men , Lee led Baker Company in more firefights against pockets of enemy soldiers in the Toktong Pass area , securing the road . On December 8 , 1950 , a Chinese machine gunner targeted Lee , wounding him seriously enough to end his Korean War service . Lieutenant Colonel Davis received the Medal of Honor for commanding the relief of Fox Company . Lee was awarded the Silver Star . Throughout Lee ' s time in Korea , his brother Chew - Fan Lee was a student at the University of California , San Francisco , School of Pharmacy . Upon graduating in 1951 , Chew - Fan Lee joined the Medical Service Corps ( United States Army ) at the rank of lieutenant , despite being a pacifist . In Korea , he performed bravely in action and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal . Vietnam War . Lee served at The Basic School from 1962 to 1965 , beginning as commanding officer of the Enlisted Instructor Company at the rank of captain . He earned the rank of major on January 1 , 1963 , at which time he was made chief of the Platoon Tactics Instruction Group . In his 27 months at this position he trained future Generals Charles " Chuck " Krulak and John " Jack " Sheehan . Lee served overseas in Vietnam during 1965 – 1966 as Division Combat Intelligence Officer for 3rd Marine Division , III Marine Amphibious Force . He organized a division - level translation team for quickly processing foreign language documents captured by marine field units . Civilian life . Lee retired from military service at the rank of major in 1968 and worked a civilian job with New York Life Insurance Company for seven years . During this period , Lee ' s mother died in Sacramento , and Lee ' s brother Chew - Mon Lee died at the rank of colonel during army service in Taiwan . His brother Chew - Fan Lee advanced in his career as hospital pharmacist . In 1975 , Lee began working as a regulatory compliance coordinator for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association ; a position he held for almost two decades . Lee was married twice , producing no children . He has a step - daughter from his second marriage . Today , Lee is retired from his civilian career , living near Washington , D . C . in Arlington , Virginia . Legacy . The vigorous fighting spirit that Lee gave to his USMC company resulted in it being allowed to keep the name " Baker Company " even after the U . S . military switched in 1956 from the Joint Army / Navy Phonetic Alphabet ( B for Baker ) to the NATO phonetic alphabet ( B for Bravo ) . In a 2002 speech about the Chosin Reservoir battle , General Ray Davis said that Lee was the bravest Marine he ever knew . In 2000 , the California Military Museum mounted an exhibit describing the bravery and military service of the three Lee brothers . Lee is a member of the Legion of Valor , and represented the group in a meeting with President George W . Bush in 2007 . The story of Lee ' s bravery in the Korean War was the subject of a documentary produced by the Smithsonian Channel . The documentary , titled " Uncommon Courage : Breakout at Chosin " , was broadcast on Memorial Day , May 31 , 2010 . David Royle of the Smithsonian Channel said that the filmmakers interviewed a number of veterans who served alongside Lee , many of whom believed that " he should have been awarded the Medal of Honor . " Joe Owen was one of the marines fighting under Lee ' s leadership , and he told Smithsonian Channel documentarians that if it had not been for the death of Lee ' s company commander soon after the November 2 – 3 action , Lee would have been properly nominated for the Medal of Honor , the highest military honor of the United States . Early in his career , Lee ' s superior officers criticized him for his aggressive chip - on - shoulder attitude . Lee maintained the pugnacious stance throughout his life . Lee responded to critics by saying that the chip is " my teaching tool to dispel ignorance . " Awards . Lee received decorations for bravery and service in the Korean War and in Vietnam . In addition to the Navy Cross , he also received the Silver Star and the Navy Marine Corps Commendation Ribbon with " V " Device ( for valor in combat ) .