Grandmaster Ken MacKenzie - Taekwondo Times

Mr. Mcgee and I (Dr. Mencia) believed in Master Lee’s approach and all three of us began
organizing a program that was then approved by Major General Harry Brooks. The General gave
Master Lee an old warehouse of some 10,000 square feet, which Master Lee was responsible for,
making it functional to initiate Master Lee’s Tae Kwon Do training program. The warehouse was so
dilapidated that the initial training was done out in the open.
Master Lee instructed us to start by dusting and scrubbing “our new house” as he would refer to
this old warehouse. In the early 1970s, floor mats were nonexistent, hence Master Lee improvised
by using heavy rubber mats. When the Hawaiian sun was at its best, this warehouse was like a
natural sauna. One day during training, we observed an Army truck pulling into our warehouse.
We saw Master Lee jump from the front seat and start walking, swinging his arms like he used
to. “Mencia, get guys and take truck things,” he ordered in his broken English. We understood to
unload the truck.
The load was old parachutes. Master Lee instructed us to spread this material and he invented a
low ceiling made up of multicolor parachute cloth. When the job was completed, we could not stop
laughing, but the next day when that burning Hawaiian sun was upon us, we looked at Master Lee
with such admiration and respect for his intelligence and devotion to his students.
He would train his students so hard that many times we did not know where the energy to stand
on our feet was coming from. I remember Mr. McGee leaning over to me and saying, “Master Lee is
a slave driver.” Then, when Mr. McGee least expected, Master Lee was feeding us Korean food and
treating Mr. McGee’s pain with acupressure technique. Our love for this man grew so strong, that
he became a father figure to most of us who were closest to him.
Our instructor training would begin before sunrise, with a six to eight mile run followed by
stretching and body hardening. By nine a.m., the soldiers assigned to Tae Kwon Do would report
for training until 11:45 a.m., only to return for more at 1:00 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. Then, from 5:00
p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Master Lee continued training the civilian and military dependents. Saturdays
and Sundays were training by invitation only. Those students that were in the program and showed
good potential to become black belts were selected.
taekwondotimes.com / November 2009 61