Girls, Be Ambitious!

By Kwon Ji-hye, Tribune Reporter

 The following is the first part of the Domestic Cover Team (DCT) series to introduce respectable CNU alumni living in the country. It will provide good instruction for CNU students. In this issue let’s meet one of them, the first female general of Korea, Yang Seung-suk. - Ed.
 
　The members of DCT were excited at meeting Yang Seung-suk, who graduated in 1973, because she is the first woman to become a General in Korea. She is in charge of an inspection commission for the Korean Electronic Power Corporation and currently takes an active role in politics as a member of the Uri party.
　Before meeting her, this reporter thought she was perhaps a stern woman of strong physique. She welcomed the DCT saying that her daughters were older than us. Contrary to our expectations, she is a gracious and gentle woman. Her smile made me relax. 
　During the interview, I asked what motivated her to become a nurse officer and what difficulties she had as the first female general.
　When she was a sophomore, she saw a movie called “M.A.S.H.,” which was about U.S.A. nurse officers in a field hospital during the Korean War. She was mesmerized with the movie. After seeing the movie, she heard of nurse officer recruitment and volunteered immediately. The very movie caused a turning point in her life.
　Military education for first 6 weeks was very hard. She passed the compulsory period of military service and has served for about 31years. After many years service she became a Principal of the Armed Forces Nursing Academy (AFNA).
　As soon as she was appointed Principal of AFNA, the school was threatened with closure. She went all over the place and met many people in order to prevent this from happening. At that time, the then first lady-in-waiting Lee Hee-ho visited AFNA and the situation became public. Eventually, General Yang’s desperate efforts prevented the school from being closed. She expressed her feelings about those days as if she had passed down a long and narrow road. With her professional capability, she would in the long term become the first female general of Korea. In doing so, this reporter thinks she has opened up a new field for Korean women.
She emphasized one thing to CNU juniors, “Both Men and women have their own respective strength and have certain advantages over each other. So, I hope CNU students foster their strengths and advantages. Now there is more opportunity than ever for women in contemporary society, which needs female capabilities like sensitivity and sensibility. Women generally surpass men in these respects.” Finally, she added that she hoped students especially females, redouble their efforts in order to break ground in new fields just as she challenged the established existing order in her generation.