Jangho Kim was born on December 26, 1985 in Seoul, South Korea. In 1990, his father, Seop ‘Steve’ Kim, his mother, Sangsoon Kim, Jangho, and sister Michelle Kim, moved to the United States from Seoul. They lived in New Jersey before moving to Placentia in Orange County, CA.

After graduating from Valencia High School in Placentia, Jangho enrolled in Fullerton Community College and worked part-time. An avid fan of computer programming and gaming, he enlisted in the U.S Army in June 2005, looking for a challenge. After completing Basic Training at Fort Benning, GA, and Advanced Individual Training in Germany, Jangho didn’t want his family to worry about him, so he never told them he was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq.

So, when two soldiers came to tell them Jang Ho had been killed in Baghdad, Steve Kim knew it had to be a mistake. When the soldiers handed him Jangho’s death certificate, he didn’t believe it. The document listed Kansas as his son’s birthplace and additionally stated he was killed in Baghdad, Iraq. “I thought it was a mistake because my son was born in Seoul, South Korea and, during two phone calls after he left for Germany, he said he was in a safe place and not in Baghdad,” said the disbelieving dad. “I didn’t trust this document, so they called someone in the military. They were told when a soldier is born outside of the United States, they change his birthplace to a U.S. state. His had been changed to Kansas. It was him,” Kim said. [This information from the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin; Imani Tate, Staff Writer; May 31, 2012]

In a combat operation in Baghdad on November 13, 2006, PFC Jang Ho Kim was the driver and PFC Allman was the gunner, in a 2-man Humvee. Both men were assigned to the Mortar Platoon, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment ‘Blue Spaders.’ Their Humvee was the first vehicle in line in the combat patrol and it was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED). Both men were killed instantly. The explosion was so great that it took three months to separate the two soldiers’ remains, which could be identified only by DNA.