Reflections Magazine Issue #64 - Spring 2006 | Page 24

Alumni Feature

Kenneth Kops ’84
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army

Siena Heights in the Service
By Jennifer A. Hamlin Church

Ken Kops celebrated this past New Year with a Dec. 31 promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in the U. S. Army.
Ken’s military career has taken him to Korea, Afghanistan,
Iowa, North Carolina, and now to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. And that’s just the past six years! Since Ken intends
“to continue active service with the Army until my retirement,”
who knows where else he’ll go.
Ken joined the Army Reserve while still in college, but he was
not aiming for an Army career. A history major at Siena and
member of the Saints track team, he moved to Ann Arbor after
graduation and spent the next seven years in an editing job.
But wanderlust overtook him, and he embarked on what he calls
“the great adventure of my life: Korea.”For most of the 1990s,
he lived in Seoul, teaching English, learning the Korean martial
art of tae kwon do, and earning several master’s degrees.
All the while, he was a member of the Reserve. He had always
enjoyed serving, and after working as a liaison officer between
U.S. military forces in Korea, he began seeking “a way to expand
my role.”
In 1999, he entered active service, having risen to the rank of
Captain in the Reserve. By 2000, he was a Major, moving first
to Des Moines, Iowa, then Fort Bragg, N.C., Bagram, Afghanistan, Riverdale, Md., and finally, last year, to the Pentagon.
Accompanying him in this life of “military travel and relocation” is his wife, Young Sun, whom he married in 2002. “We
constantly seek out new and wonderful adventures,” Ken says,
adding that, “Young Sun is the reason I am where I am today.”

W

With so many people in harm’s way these
days because of ethnic and religious

intolerance, civil war, political disputes and
the war on terrorism, there is some small
reassurance in knowing that a few of the
participants carry with them the Siena
Heights mission of competent, purposeful
and ethical conduct. Meet a few members
of the SHU community now serving in
the U.S. military.

Above: Ken Kops ’84 at the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan in 2004.

Life for Ken today still includes the martial arts: he is now a
4th dan (degree) black belt. He still enjoys learning, and since
entering active service has attended a number of advanced professional military education courses.
And he still is guided by the strong Catholic faith he brought
with him to Siena Heights. Despite frequent address changes in
far-flung locales, he and Young Sun maintain their parish affiliation with St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic parish in Jackson, Mich.