Gene Yu
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Gene Yu () is a
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
graduate, former U.S. Army
Special Forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...
officer and author. He wrote the book ''Yellow Green Beret: Stories of an Asian-American Stumbling Around U.S. Army Special Forces (series), Yellow Green Beret: Stories of an Asian-American Stumbling Around U.S. Army Special Forces'' Vols. 1 to 3, under the pen name of ''Chester Wong'', a semi-autobiographical and comedic take on his time in the Green Berets. He is also the nephew of
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
ese President
Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou ( zh, 馬英九, born 13 July 1950) is a Hong Kong-born Taiwanese politician who served as president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. Previously, he served as justice minister from 1993 to 1996 and mayor of Taipei from ...
and was instrumental in the negotiation and release of Taiwanese citizen Evelyn Chang (Chang An-wei), from
Abu Sayyaf Abu Sayyaf (; ar, جماعة أبو سياف; ', ASG), officially known by the Islamic State as the Islamic State – East Asia Province, is a Jihadist militant and pirate group that follows the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. It is based i ...
militants in the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
.


Background and education

Gene Yu was born in
Concord, Massachusetts Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the conflu ...
on October 26, 1979 and moved to
Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
in 1988, where he grew up. He is of
Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
ancestry. Yu's mother is the younger sister of Taiwanese President
Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou ( zh, 馬英九, born 13 July 1950) is a Hong Kong-born Taiwanese politician who served as president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. Previously, he served as justice minister from 1993 to 1996 and mayor of Taipei from ...
. Although he is the nephew of President Ma, he had little contact with him while growing up. Yu matriculated into
West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...
at 17 and received his commission in June 2001. His first command was as a
tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
platoon A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may range ...
and mortar platoon leader along the
demilitarized zone A demilitarized zone (DMZ or DZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or bounda ...
in
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
. He joined the Special Forces in 2006. During the final stages of his U.S. Army Special Forces Qualification Course in December 2005, Yu was in the
Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) is a training program, best known by its military acronym, that prepares U.S. military personnel, U.S. Department of Defense civilians, and private military contractors to survive and "return ...
(SERE) phase of the program. In accordance with the requirements of the training, Yu only carried his military ID card and a knife. Yu and his classmates were also expected to learn to live off the land, and as such, ate very little. In the final days of the evasion portion of the school and motivated by hunger, Yu left the boundaries of the exercise and came upon a group of
Guatemalans Guatemalans ( es, guatemaltecos or ''guatemalenses'') are people connected to the country of Guatemala. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Guatemalans, several (if not all) of these connections exist. Guat ...
in the
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
forest. Using
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
skills acquired during extensive foreign travel, Yu was able to convince them to give him a ride to the nearby town of
Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
. After reaching Aberdeen and being rejected by a convenience store when he tried to pay using his ID and memorized credit card number, Yu directed the group to a
Papa John's Pizza Papa John's International, Inc., d/b/a Papa Johns, is an American pizza restaurant chain. It is the fourth largest pizza delivery restaurant chain in the United States, with headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky and Atlanta, Georgia metropolita ...
's location and ordered
pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions ...
s and other food, knowing he could pay with his ID and without an actual physical credit card, as he had done in the past at other Papa John’s restaurants. Yu returned to his classmates with the food. Though they destroyed the evidence of the pizzas, Yu was later found with the receipt during the resistance phase of the school during a strip search that was part of the training. Yu was initially forced out of the U.S. Army Special Forces Qualification Course, despite only being short one day of graduation, but was later able to repeat the class and receive his Green Beret. While some saw the incident as a typically creative Special Forces-type of solution to the SERE challenge his story is still reportedly told as a cautionary tale to incoming students to the SERE program by its
cadre Cadre may refer to: *Cadre (military), a group of officers or NCOs around whom a unit is formed, or a training staff *Cadre (politics), a politically controlled appointment to an institution in order to circumvent the state and bring control to th ...
(albeit without Yu’s name and with the consequence of having been being forced out of the school). During his time in the U.S. Army, he also served in
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
, and
Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...
. Due to the classified nature of his assignments there is little information about his deployments on public record. During his tours of duty, Yu conducted hostage rescue missions in
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
and coordinated 5,000 Filipino marines and soldiers in an attack on an Abu Sayyaf base. Yu served 8 years in the military (4 years additionally at West Point) and was awarded with two
Bronze Stars The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...
and was discharged with rank of
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
, although he was selected for early promotion to
major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
.


The Chang An-wei incident

While on vacation, Taiwanese citizen Chang An-Wei was abducted by
Abu Sayyaf Abu Sayyaf (; ar, جماعة أبو سياف; ', ASG), officially known by the Islamic State as the Islamic State – East Asia Province, is a Jihadist militant and pirate group that follows the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. It is based i ...
gunmen on the
Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
n island of
Pom Pom A pom-pom – also spelled pom-pon, pompom or pompon – is a decorative ball or tuft of fibrous material. The term may refer to large tufts used by Cheerleading, cheerleaders, or a small, tighter ball attached to the top of a hat, al ...
and was taken to the Philippines on November 15, 2013. Her husband, Hsu Li-Min, was killed. While visiting Taiwan to promote the Chinese language edition of ''Yellow Green Beret'', Yu learned about the kidnapping. He described his relationship with Chang as "a family friend." On the request of the Chang family, Yu went to the Philippines and utilizing his contacts within the Filipino armed forces and through a network of private security contractors, he organized two task forces to find Chang. Though the Filipino armed forces attempted to stop their
soldiers A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...
and
marines Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refle ...
from taking part in the operation, they continued to work with Yu. One of Yu’s former instructors from West Point and fellow Green Beret officer also introduced him to Filipino special operations officers. Yu's team also opened a line of communication to the militants with regards to their ransom demands. Initially, the Abu Sayyaf group that held Chang asked for millions of dollars, but their monetary demands fluctuated wildly throughout their discussions. Ten days before Chang regained her freedom, Yu posed as a Chinese-speaking doctor during a phone call to the militants. The militants abruptly cut negotiations with the suspicion that Yu was a Taiwanese spy and threatened to kill Evelyn Chang, but two days later, Yu’s team was able to re-open communications under the guise of being a different group of negotiators. Chang was sold to various subgroups within the Abu Sayyaf organization, complicating the efforts to find her and the ongoing negotiations. Following the conversation Yu had with Chang, he and his team became concerned that she would be moved further up the Abu Sayyaf organization and that action on their part was required. The Filipino members of his team received orders from their chain of command to not get involved. The orders were ignored. Yu mentioned the groups made up of Filipinos and security contractors were at odds, and he had his doubts whether their actions would be a success. Despite their differences, the groups were able to locate Chang in an Abu Sayyaf jungle base camp in the Southern Philippine island province of Sulu. Yu declines to discuss what followed, but it resulted in a number of Abu Sayyaf members killed. Chang returned to Taiwan on December 21, 35 days after her ordeal began. Yu petitioned the Taiwanese government to award its Medal of Valor to three Filipino soldiers. All three were awarded with the medals and was the first time they were presented to foreign soldiers. Parallels to the Chang An-wei incident were made to the later kidnapping in April 2014 of Chinese national Gao Huayun and Filipino hotel staffer Marcy Dayawan. Yu was interviewed by the ''
South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...
'' for his thoughts on the event and how it compared to the Chang An-wei incident.


Civilian career

After leaving the military, Yu has worked as an equity swaps trader at
Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...
in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
in its Prime Services Department and with
Palantir Technologies Palantir Technologies is a public American software company that specializes in big data analytics. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, it was founded by Peter Thiel, Nathan Gettings, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, and Alex Karp in 2003. The compa ...
in its Asia-region business development department, based in Singapore. Yu also worked as Director of Channels at Perx, loyalty-based mobile CRM platform with an automated and targeted marketing messaging system based in
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
, chaired by
Eduardo Saverin Eduardo Luiz Saverin (; ; born March 19, 1982) is a Brazilian billionaire entrepreneur and angel investor based in Singapore. Saverin is one of the co-founders of Facebook. In 2012, he owned 53 million Facebook shares (approximately 2% of all ou ...
, and as Vice President of Corporate Development at migme Limited, a
Foxconn Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Hon Hai Technology Group in China and Taiwan and Foxconn internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer established in 1974 with headquarters in Tucheng, New T ...
-backed social entertainment platform and public company on the
Australian Stock Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as, ...
. He also launched a
mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...
apparel company which creates fight gear, jiujitsu gi, and other apparel, FLOW MMA. Yu founded the company after training in mixed martial arts in Asia and discovering, while in Taiwan, that there were no MMA apparel companies that catered to Chinese fighters and enthusiasts. Yu has also served as a referee during Legend FC 8 and 10. Yu partnered with Barron Lau, former CEO of Round5 (the licensee of official UFC and Bruce Lee action figurines) and Carol Chen, an apparel manufacturer for developing designs based in Chinese culture. Former
UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...
and
ONE FC ONE Championship (formerly ONE Fighting Championship) is a Singaporean combat sports promotion. Founded on 14 July 2011 by entrepreneur Chatri Sityodtong and former ESPN Star Sports senior executive Victor Cui, its events have featured mixed ...
fighter Andy Wang was also recruited to help cultivate MMA fighters in China. Yu is currently the CEO of Blackpanda, Asia's first combined physical-cyber incident response group, specializing in coverage of Asia-Pacific and hyper-focused on digital forensics and cyber crisis response and management;
Resorts World Manila Newport World Resorts (formerly Resorts World Manila) is an integrated resort, located in Newport City, opposite Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3, in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. The resort is owned and operated by Tra ...
notably contracted the company to review its security procedures following the 2017 Resorts World Manila attack.


References


External links


The official website of ''Yellow Green Beret: Stories of an Asian-American Stumbling Around U.S. Army Special Forces''
ead Link
Gene Yu’s official Facebook page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Gene 21st-century American non-fiction writers American expatriates in Hong Kong American male non-fiction writers People from California American military personnel of Chinese descent American military writers Living people United States Army officers United States Military Academy alumni Members of the United States Army Special Forces Mixed martial arts executives American people of Taiwanese descent Hakka writers People from Concord, Massachusetts 1979 births 21st-century American male writers Military personnel from Massachusetts