Book: Under Five Flags By Hackchan Rhee and Marta L. Tullis
My husband (deceased) Hackchan Rhee was born in Pyongyang Korea (before the partition)
on February 3, 1929. He was the eldest brother in a family of 4 (or fve, if you count his
deceased sister), who was a year or so older than him. He was the son of a man who worked
for the Pyongyang Water department, frst as a technician, and later as the top manager. He
attended schools which were controlled by the Japanese, and for all intents and purposes was
raised in the Japanese tradition, until 1945, when Japan lost WWII. Immediately after
WWII, he experienced Russian occupation in North Korea, until the Communist
government set up by the Russians was taken over by the North Koreans. He went to work
for the Americans as a houseboy and translator when they were in Pyongyang, and eventually
followed them to South Korea after they withdrew to South Korea, taking his younger
brother Youngchan with him. He worked approximately 2-1/2 years with the Americans,
until he was able to immigrate to the U.S., where he obtained a degree in mechanical
engineering from the University of Wisconsin. He worked a variety of engineering jobs until
his retirement.
I myself obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado at
Denver, and worked at an architectural and engineering frm before eventually working for
frst Martin Marietta, which was bought by Lockheed Martin, and eventually transferring to
United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture with Boeing. I left in 2016 (the same year
Under Five Flags was published). Huck and I met at a robotics evening institute class which
was hosted by Martin Marietta in 1987. We were married in 1988, and remained so until
his death in 2016.
