Steel Helmet (Paperback) | Released: 01 Jun 2017

This autobiography relates the life story of Myung Park, MD. The story begins with his life growing up in North Korea under Japanese and then the oppressive communist North Korean rule. The story continues with the advent of the Korean War, when he was swept up into the turmoil of the conflict, joining the South Korean Army during a time the allies had advanced north beyond his village. As a sixteen-year old Private First Class he wore the steel helmet with the symbol of a blue star, the ensign of the Sixth Infantry Division of the South Korean Army, shown on the front cover. The large middle section of the book contains the diary kept by the young soldier, motivated by the strong Confucian influence in Korea at the time to demonstrate his achieving adulthood. It is a contemporaneous account, covering twenty months, from the viewpoint of a boy of his activities at the front and behind the lines after receiving a gunshot wound in action. The War Diary serves as the backbone of the book and is the source of the title. The book continues with an accounting of Dr. Park's life following discharge from the army as a wounded veteran, a refugee without parents or other significant monetary support, documenting his perseverance and ultimate academic success following self-study, entry into the prestigious Seoul University, and graduation from medical school ranked first in his class and a Presidential Gold Medalist. This account is a vivid personal history of Korea in the middle of the twentieth century. The book concludes with his move to the USA for advanced training, a change requiring adjustment to a very different culture, language and legal system. He eventually becomes a citizen, a husband and father of three sons, and a world-renowned pediatric cardiologist at a major US medical school, publishing original scientific works and several textbooks on pediatric cardiology, some of which have been translated into several languages.
About the Author: The author was a North Korean refugee during the Korean War, who joined the South Korean army at the age of sixteen years. His elementary school education was under Japanese rule and his middle school years were under the oppressive North Korean communist regime. This regime caused immense damage to his entire family, prompting him to join the South Korean Army when the opportunity arose. While serving in the South Korean army he kept a diary (The War Diary) for twenty months that includes events before and after a gunshot wound at age seventeen. As a refugee teenager in South Korea following the war without parents, he managed to enter and graduate from the prestigious Seoul National University as the Presidential Gold medalist. The author came to the United States in 1962 and received advanced medical training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology. He eventually became a world-renowned physician and chief of pediatric cardiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. He published a series of important original research papers and wrote three popular books in his field, including "How to Read Pediatric ECGs," "Park's Pediatric Cardiology for Practitioners" and "Park's the Pediatric Cardiology Handbook." Some editions of his books have been translated into six foreign languages. He also wrote a book for parents of overweight children titled "Helping Your Overweight Child: A Do-It-Yourself Guide."