Korean-American Says Aegis Program Reflects His Background
By Jung Sung-ki
Korea Times Correspondent
WASHINGTON, D.C. _ Fifty years ago, a four-year-old Korean-American boy left South Korea for the United States, physically ill, his mind scarred by war.
The memory of his birthplace grew dim as grew up but his love for his mother country remained. Now the Korean-American is taking a great pride in orchestrating the Korean Navy’s ambitious plan to build ships equipped with the Aegis Combat System.
``To me, the (Aegis) ship coming together kind of represents me in a way or my life because of the fact that half of the ship is American and half Korean systems, and they come together to create powerful results. It’s a reflection of my life,’’ David P. Luhta, director of Korea programs at Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors, said in an interview with The Korea Times on Tuesday last week.
Luhta, 54, is in charge of the $3.2-billion KDX-III destroyer program to launch three 7,000-ton Aegis warships by 2012, following the development of nine KDX-I (3,000 ton-class) and stealthy KDX-II (5,000 ton-class) destroyers.
A KDX-III vessel is made up of a Korean ship platform and Lockheed Martin’s Aegis Weapon System capable of countering all existing threats including ballistic missiles with state-of-the-art arms such as the Mk41 Vertical Launching System.
Based on SPY-1 radar, the Aegis warship is able to track 300 missiles and aircraft 500 kilometers away and hit 24 targets simultaneously. The first KDX-III ship is slated to set sail as early as the middle of next month.
Luhta has taken charge of building Japanese Aegis systems for the past few years.
``When I was living in Japan, I felt the (Aegis) system was very important for the defense of Korea,’’ said the retired U.S. Navy officer. ``My feeling was Korea is a country that needs that type of system to be able to keep peace. To me, certainly, I don’t take a personal pride in the selection of it, but I do take a personal pride in watching the ship come together and to be able to represent the interests of the Korean people.’’
Luhta was brought to Ohio in 1957 by his father, then a U.S. Marine who participated in the 1950-53 Korean War, after his mother died for unknown reasons during the war. At that time, because he was ill with tuberculosis, his father put him in an orphanage in Seoul temporarily as the U.S. government didn’t allow tubercular patients to enter the country, he said.
Later, Luhta entered the United States after a senator in Ohio pushed a bill through the Congress, allowing him to come to the state. His illness was later treated.
Luhta’s father, John E. Luhta from Finland, was discharged from the Marine Corps in 1962 as a master sergeant and died in 1980.
Luhta joined the U.S. Navy in 1972 and was transferred to the reserves in 1984 to work with Locheed Martin. He retired from the navy in 2005 as a captain.
He met his Korean wife, Cho Byung-soon, in 1989, which he described the most ``fortunate’’ thing in his life.
``She wanted to show me Korea and we went to Mt. Sorak (in Kangwon Province). And I couldn’t believe it but she did not wear any working shoes. She wore high heels,’’ Luhta said with bright smile. ``She walked through all day long up and down hills… to see things like the Buddhist stuff there. And she followed me the whole way and never complained. It was my decision. That’s when I proposed.’’
He now has a 15-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.
Asked if he feels a Korean, the Lockheed Martin official was quick to respond, saying, ``Yes, I’m a Korean-American but Korean comes first in that word.’’
He said he has difficulty finding any clues on her mother and her death because of limited information like some paper works and a Korean passport and, in fact, does not necessarily feel the need much to find relatives of his mother in South Korea at the moment.
But he expressed hope that he will get in touch with his Korean relatives sometime in the future for his kids.