Phillip C. Diaz

I got one of those early morning phone calls yesterday that raises the hair on the back of your neck and sends a chill down your spine! My initial response was probably due my belief that no good news comes late in the night or at 5:30 AM. So as the phone rang I rushed towards the ringing expecting to hear the worse news from the caller.
It was my son Phillip calling me from Norfolk, Virginia to tell me that he was just promoted to Navy Petty Officer Second Class (PO2)! I don’t know if my excitement was for his promotion or because it was not the dreaded type of phone call I had expected, but I was excited! I am sure I overreacted but I was elated to hear the news. I let it all out which as it turned out was a good thing because my wife Carolyn was upstairs still holding her breath from the time she heard the phone ring and was waiting for me to climb the stairs and give her the bad news. Of course she heard me and was just as excited as I was when I reached her to hand her the phone.
Why would a promotion cause such excitement? As many of you know my son is from Korea, but has lived, until joining the Navy, all but four months of his life here in Fillmore. Phillip was born Yun Chan Lee on June 13, 1986 in Pusan, Korea to very young parents who could not care for him due to the extreme poverty level they found themselves in. The decision to put their newborn into an orphanage for adoption must have been difficult, but if they did it so that he would have a better life they achieved their goal.
Yun Chan Lee was placed immediately into an orphanage operated by Holt International and four months later found himself in the lobby of the Bradley International Terminal at the Los Angeles International Airport. He was being handed over to two strangers who had begun the adoption process about the time his Korean mother had conceived him. Little Yun Chan Lee was driven first to be introduced to family in Orange County and then to his new home in Fillmore. Soon he was given his new name Phillip Cecelio Diaz and the process of giving him a new life was begun.
Phillip was a great kid growing up and like most kids he did the typical things that bring parents joy, worry, sadness and pride. I could not have been more proud when Phillip chose to follow his late Grandfather Cecelio T. Diaz into the Navy. His choice to serve his adopted country as an American Sailor is his way of not only honoring his Grandfather, but a way I believe of paying back his adopted Country for the opportunities she has provided for him. I also believe in some way something that happened while he was still a toddler may have influenced his decision to enlist in the Navy.
As a toddler I often had my son near me while I did yard work. One morning as we were in the front yard pulling weeds a young man approached us and asked me if Phillip was a Holt baby? After I told him yes he told me he also was also a Holt baby and that he had been born to an unmarried Korean mother and an American father. He said that was not a good thing in the Korean culture and he had been discarded by his birth mother into a trash receptacle soon after birth. He was rescued and placed with a Holt International orphanage and soon was adopted by American parents. At the time of our conversation that young man was serving in the United States Navy as a Navy pilot stationed at Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station. My son was told this story when he was old enough to understand it and has heard me retell it many times as an example of the opportunities this Country has given to not only him, and that young Naval Aviator, but to all of us.
On Memorial Day, Monday, May 26th my son, newly promoted Petty Officer Second Class Phillip C. Diaz leaves for his second deployment of his two and one-half years in the Navy. This time he will be patrolling the Mediterranean instead of the Persian Gulf as he did on his first deployment. When I think about Phillip’s service I can’t help but feel that Carolyn and I did the right thing nearly twenty-two years ago when Phillip came into our lives and into this community. I wish you safe travel son and I thank you for your service and sacrifice to keep your Country strong.