Tony, Bruce Lee, and S. Henry Cho

After the briefing on what to do when we see tracers coming at the aircraft, I got in the airplane with a man from Jacksonville who was to be my "Observer", my right seat guy who handles communications and navigation. Tony is originally from New York and now lives in Jax.
We were out on a three-hour mission and naturally, we got to talking since we'd never seen each other before being paired for this sortie.

Tony asked me what I did for a living and I told him I am a karate instructor. He asked what kind, which indicated he knew something about the arts. After I told him he said he'd studied Tae Kwon Do when he was young. His father had taken him in because he was "excitable". He commented that his instructor was Henry Cho. I said "S. Henry Cho, the famous TKD instructor in New York." Now he was surprised that I knew the name. Cho was one of the formative figures of American martial arts growth, along with Ed Parker, Jhoon Rhee, Robert Trias, and others. I told him I had studied with Ed Parker and he said "Yeah, the guy in the black gi! I remember him."

Tony had seen Ed Parker back in the 60's at events in New York City. He went on to tell me about how he'd seen Bruce Lee do a demo there. too. He said Bruce did the push-ups on his thumb thing, but then "He put an apple on his head and kicked it off! That shut everybody up."
Tony told me that when he went to Cho to study that the instructor sat him down and told him a story. He said. "There are two twin brothers here, both over six feet tall and very strong. They can break a 4x4 piece of wood with their bare feet. But they gotten beaten up in a fight while they were trying to get their shoes off. If you understand this story, you will learn martial arts."

'Nuff said, Mr. Cho. Thanks for the lesson.

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Lee Wedlake has been teaching Kenpo Karate for over 35 years and has written a variety of Kenpo Books about different kenpo katas and kenpo concepts. Mr. Wedlake has worked directly with Ed Parker and is generous with his knowledge and his time. He is available for Kenpo Seminars and camps.