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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Slain IU grad remembered at memorial

Yoon Jang-ho, killed in Afghanistan on military duty, honored for sincerity

Jay Seawell

Nearly 100 people, all dressed in black, could not hold back tears when a memorial video of Yoon Jang-ho, a 2004 Kelley School graduate who was killed last week in Afghanistan, was shown on a projection screen Friday at a memorial service at the Korean United Methodist Church, 1920 E. Third St.\nPictures of him in front of the Kelley School in his cap and gown during graduation were shown. The crowd cried even more as pictures were shown of Yoon’s parents crying next to pictures of Yoon. When photos of Yoon posing in his army uniform were shown several times, the cries became louder.\nYoon was killed by a Taliban suicide bomber while working his mandatory two-year service for the Korean Army. Yoon was 27 years old.\nThe Taliban bomber was trying to assassinate Vice President Dick Cheney, according to Reuters reports. Cheney was in Afghanistan to discuss security for Taliban attacks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.\nYoon was to serve three more months before being discharged from the army.\nYoon graduated from the Kelley School of Business with majors in accounting, finance and international business. But during his memorial service focused on Yoon’s sincerity.\n“When I think of him, I want to smile,” Junyoup Kim said during the eulogy. “But right now, I cannot smile in this world.”\nKim became best friends with Yoon when they both were freshmen at IU in 1999 and attended the same church.\nWhen Kim came to IU, it was his first time living in the United States. Kim said Yoon taught him the culture of the U.S. and encouraged Kim when he struggled while studying the English language.\nKim, too, served in the Korean Army for two years and left in 2002. He said he remembered what Yoon told him when he threw a farewell party in 2002 for him:\n“Stay well and we will see each other soon.”\nIt was the last time the best friends saw one another.\nKim said he found out about his friend’s death when he read an e-mail from another friend who wrote of the news. Kim said he was still in denial and questioned if the picture of Yoon in a news story about his death was really him.\n“I just didn’t want to believe it,” Kim said. “It could have been someone else with the same name. But when I saw the picture, I mean, I still couldn’t believe it.”\nSae Park, an elder for the Korean United Methodist Church, also delivered a eulogy. Park said Yoon was studying to become a pastor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. But he left in 2005 after only one semester because of his required service in the South Korean Army.\nPark said that, when Yoon graduated from IU, Yoon’s parents wanted Park and the former pastor of the Korean United Methodist Church to give him advice on becoming a pastor. Park said Yoon was a born-again Christian.\nYoon’s parents transported his body from Afghanistan to Seoul, South Korea, earlier this week and plan on burying him there.

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