U.S. Army Private Jeung Jin “Nikky” Kim, 23, has what he’s always dreamed about: a son. Apollo Ikaika Kim was born on Sept. 7, 2004, in Hawaii, while Jeung Jin was half a world away fighting with the U.S. Army in Iraq. In early December, Jeung Jin was supposed to return home to see his son for the first time. On Oct. 6, Kim died in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, after his patrol was attacked by enemy forces, according to the Pentagon.

“All my son will ever know is that his dad was a hero,” said his widow, A Young, 23. She has thought about what she will say to her son when he becomes old enough to understand what happened to his father.
“I just want to let my son know how much his dad was loved, and just how much he was a hero,” she said.

Apollo will have his father’s letters to his mother. In them, his father sent birth announcements that read “It’s a boy!” — even before A Young was pregnant.
Growing up as an only child, Jeung Jin was eager to have a family. The proud father showed off pictures of his newborn to fellow soldiers.

A Young comforts her 1-month-old son, Apollo, at the funeral, surrounded by family. On the left is Jeung Jin’s mother, Mi Young Jang, and on the right is A Young’s mother, Myong Sun Watanabe. (Photo by Dennis Oda/Honolulu Star-Bulletin)

From Iraq, Jeung Jin encouraged his wife to take their son out to see what people’s response would be to seeing the infant. On their first day out, A Young took Apollo to the Navy Exchange to buy milk and baby clothes. But then she received a phone call from her father urging her to come home right away because there were officers waiting at her door. A Young, who is also in the U.S. Army, thought she might be in trouble at work.

When she arrived and saw a chaplain accompanying the captain, she knew the message would be devastating. A Young had just spoken with her husband the day before.

Although she maintains her composure when talking about her husband, she tells friends that she relives the pain every time she talks about it. But for her son and Jeung Jin, she insists on holding herself together.

“Each phone call, he told me that if anything ever happened, I should never cry in front of my son and I had to keep it together,” A Young said. “I’m still in a state of shock.”

Jeung Jin arrived in the United States from South Korea when he was in high school. He studied in Zanesville, Ohio, as an exchange student. After graduation, he moved to Hawaii and enrolled at Hawaii Pacific University. He enlisted in the U.S. Army to receive training in law enforcement for a future career with the FBI.
Jeung Jin met A Young in 1999 shortly after he moved to Hawaii. They met at a noraebang where they were the only English speakers among mutual Korean friends. Jeung Jin’s African American colloquialisms (something he picked up while learning English in Ohio) surprised A Young, whose father is black and mother is Korean and Okinawan. She thought it was unusual, and that Jeung Jin was just trying to impress her. Still, she quickly fell for him.