PEARL HARBOR – Second generation San Franciscan native Jonathan A. Yuen was recently promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral (lower half) in the United States Navy.

Yuen is now one of nine U.S. Navy flag officers of Asian and Pacific American heritage. He currently serves as the deputy chief of staff for logistics, fleet supply and ordnance at the U.S. Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii.

A ceremony marking his promotion to one-star naval rank, which is similar to that of a brigadier general in the Army or Air Force, took place Aug. 9 at Pearl Harbor.

A 1979 graduate of Lowell High School in 1979, Yuen also attended Herbert Hoover Jr. High and Columbus Elementary.

He has had a variety of Navy assignments, ranging from serving as a supply officer on a ship to director of the Navy Working Capital Fund.

“My story is that I have had a wonderful career in the Navy where I have been afforded opportunities of leadership, education, and service to country, Yuen said. “I have felt value in my service and there has been a balance between what I have given to service to my country and the adventures I have shared with my family.”

Yuen said that he is just an average guy who was blessed to have two parents who taught him to value education and discipline and to believe in service, God and his country.

“My parents instilled the traditional message of most San Francisco Chinese Americans in the 1960s, put education first and work hard,” he said. “The family sang patriotic songs at home, and attended church regularly because his parents thought it was important to believe in something that would lead to good choices later in life.”

The son of an educator, Yuen’s beginnings were not humble by any means, nor where they extravagant.

His father, Jack Yuen, was born and raised in Nevada City, Calif., earned his masters at the University of California and his doctorate at Stanford University.

The younger Yuen said he still remembers going to the Stanford versus West Point football game as a youngster, laughing at the haircuts in the program pictures.

Yuen senior, who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, corrected him and explained the importance of the military on the way home from the game.

“My dad was very proud of his service,” Yuen reflected. “Dad said this is where he grew up and matured. He got his life’s direction as well as opportunity from the Army.”

Yuen’s mother was born and raised in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown. She graduated from San Francisco State University and then worked for the city and county of San Francisco as a recreation and park director in Hunter’s Point and then J. Serra. Together, Yuen’s parents worked to provide a nice home to raise their two children in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Heights neighborhood.

His decision to attend the Naval Academy, where he graduated in 1983, came at a time when most of his peers were all trying to figure out their way in the world, Yuen said. “It was a time when the world was just recovering from the Vietnam War.” His choice to join the Navy was not the most popular amongst his peers, but Yuen felt confident that the Navy was “calling him.”

“I’ve been very blessed,” Yuen said of his Navy career. “Service in the Navy has afforded me opportunities for personal and professional growth, and has also given my family an opportunity to experience the world and become global citizens.

“On a personal level, the Navy's investment in me has given me a great education,” he said. Since graduating from the Naval Academy, Yuen has received an MBA from The Wharton School of Business and attended Senior Executive Training from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

“My Navy opportunities have refined my skill sets and allowed me to do three things: be relevant, be involved and make an impact,” Yuen said. What kind of impact? Yuen rode a nuclear powered submarine in the 80s during the midst of the Cold War. He was part of a great team that helped bring this to pass. And then came the Gulf War and subsequently, Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Through what the military calls an “Individual Augmentee” assignment, Yuen recently completed a tour of duty as the Deputy Commander/Chief of Staff of the Joint Contracting Command – Iraq/Afghanistan, headquartered in Baghdad, Iraq. (See Yuen reflect on his assignment in Iraq: http://www.youtube.com/USPacificFleet#p/u/16/0E0sLKMakz0.)

“I’ve been given an opportunity to be a part of history through service to my country,” Yuen said.

His current focus is to provide the leadership for the supply support ensuring that his fleet is combat ready and capable to respond to any contingency in the Pacific, which is an area of 100 million square miles, more than half the Earth’s surface, with more than 170 ships, nearly 2000 aircraft, and 125,000 Sailors, Marines and civilians.

Thirty-one years after graduating from Lowell High School, Yuen said he is reconnecting with his old buddies through social networking sites. Most have children now and are more settled. When asked about his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, Yuen is happy to talk about his impressions, his experiences and his journey.

“The greatest opportunity that the Navy has given me is the opportunity to give back through mentoring, sharing my experiences with others and in my own way help to shape the future of the Navy.”

Yuen currently lives in Hawaii with his wife and two children. He plans to take part in a “homecoming” so to speak when he returns to San Francisco to attend his eight-year old nephew’s Special Friends’ Day at school in November.