Photo By Eben Boothby | Myles M. Miyamasu, the Army Materiel Command Deputy G-3, stands in front of the AMC...... read more read more
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REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – As Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month draws to a close, Army Materiel Command staff gathered May 22 for an observance celebrating the cultures of many of those working in the headquarters.
In his welcome remarks for the event, Myles Miyamasu shared stories of his Japanese heritage and how generations of his family have served the nation from World War II through today, spanning three-plus generations.
“We’re not breaking new ground on service to the nation, but there’s a lot of people in front of us that look at service to your nation in uniform is not a bad thing to do,” said the AMC deputy G-3, who served 27 years in the Army.
Born in Hawaii, Miyamasu didn’t always have intentions of serving, partly because he couldn’t see his father, who was an Infantryman in the U.S. Army, as much as he wanted to. Instead, he wanted to be a banker, thinking he might be home more often.
“I didn’t see Dad as often as I could or wanted to, but with infantry and combat arms you tend to be out in the field a lot or deployed. But what his father did do anytime he could be around, he would coach baseball, football teams,” Miyamasu recalled of his dad’s 30-year career.
Miyamasu attended Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania – with his sights set on working on Wall Street as a banker. He also joined ROTC, just in case Wall Street became a reality.
“That decision was influenced by the (ROTC) cadre there who said, ‘Myles your skillset is oriented towards being and Infantryman and if you don’t like it after three years you can stop.’ I thought to myself, I’m going to stop after three years. But then I got married, and my wife at the time, who was a very wonderful person, told me you do what you want but always make sure you can provide for the family,” he said.
That three-year commitment would soon turn into a decades-long career for Miyamasu.
“Great leaders, great Soldiers, great duty assignments and experiences kind of said you could do a lot worse if you get out of the Army,” he reflected. “Leading Soldiers, standing in harm’s way for everybody else, that’s not a bad thing to do.”
Service to his country may have been implicit though, and even familial in the sense that one could say the Miyamasu family tradition is the selfless service that’s deeply rooted in his Japanese lineage.
His father’s parents were running a store on Oahu in an area of high immigrant population when the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor happened.
“The governor asked if my grandfather could continue to run their store to feed the immigrant population in that area. They ran the store much like a barter system where people would trade items like eggs for canned foods, and my grandpa kept a ledger. At the end of the war, people started to get jobs over the next 3-5 years and were coming back to pay them.”
In 1945, when the atomic bomb went off in Hiroshima, it destroyed a church in their home city. With the money they earned from the store, Miyamasu said his grandparents sent funding to help rebuild the church.
“They started sending money back to help rebuild the shrine” he explained. “I think it’s all about helping others be better. I think that lesson happened to transcend to their children, which has kept transcending over the years. It was about civil service to the greater good.”
The list of serving others and the country continues with Miyamasu’s daughter, who is scheduled to become the first female to take command of headquarters, headquarters detachment of 1-68 Armor Battalion at Fort Carson, Colorado. He also has a son in the Army and another daughter is a lieutenant commander in the Navy. His father had two brothers who served in World War II in the post occupation of Japan, and a brother who was a career Air Force Navigator who flew missions in Viet Nam.
“I wanted to make sure my kids understood that there is a value to service to the nation, even if they chose not to go in the military,” he said. “Up until my kids graduated from high school, none of them wanted to go into the military. It’s interesting how life is manifesting itself.”
After retiring in 2010, Miyamasu joined the civilian service. He worked at Fort Belvoir and the Pentagon for a few years, before coming to AMC. Here he focuses on the Army’s Organic Industrial Base readiness, inventory, depot maintenance, Army Working Capital Fund and budget planning to help align money with priorities in support of operations.
As one of AMC’s top-civilians and a member of the Senior Executive Service, his contributions now span the operations of a command that manages about 95 Army installations and OIB facilities and has a presence in all 50 states and more than 150 nations across the globe, with a diverse workforce.
In 2014, Miyamasu participated in a White House-directed small group of Asian American and Pacific Islanders that “examined the complex challenges facing the federal government in addressing the needs of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, particularly in capacity building, language access, data disaggregation and workforce diversity,” according to a press release.
Miyamasu is grateful to be part of a diverse Army team that enhances cross-cultural awareness and strengthens the nation through service.
“Any opportunity you have to serve the greater good is an opportunity you should consider,” he said. “The reason is that you are, as an individual, working as a part of a team that will make life better for millions. If you understand that impact whether you choose to stay in the military or government service.”
His time in the military and civil service reminds him of the values he was brought up on.
“My parents are the same way, they’re not flag waving kind of people, but if you watch their actions, it’s all about helping others.”
He concluded his remarks for AAPI Heritage Month with an inclusive reminder that, “Asian Pacific Islanders are about family, about diversity and about loyalty. When I think about that, it means that no one is different than anyone else. If you all looked in your hearts, you would say the same thing. Loyalty is very important to you; your family is very important, and you have appreciation for diversity. At the end of the day, for all the things Asian Pacific Islanders bring to the culture and across America, our own melting pot in many ways, we just want to be thankful for the fact that it commends its people across the military and government.”
| Date Taken: | 05.31.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 05.31.2023 21:19 |
| Story ID: | 445900 |
| Location: | REDSTONE ARSENAL, ALABAMA, US |
| Web Views: | 174 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, The Miyamasu Family: generations of service to their country, by Alyssa Crockett, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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