Reprinted from The Bellevue Club "Reflections", July 2004

It's 10:30 on a Tuesday morning and the Club's Atrium is quiet. Cosmos Lounge has yet to open, and the area is empty except for a dozen ladies seating at small round tables playing bridge. Suddenly, the tranquil atmosphere is shattered as a tall, barrel-chested man strides across the room and gracefully takes a seat at the shiny black piano, asking the room at leage, "Ladies, may I?" Without waiting for a response, he begins to play the piano classical favorite 'Liebenstraum No.3," his fingers deftly caressing what appears to be a least five octaves of keys. After a minute he stops, much to the ladies' chagrin, leaving them murmuring to one another, "Who is that? Is he a professional piano player? He's so good!" As the man, Lee Hoch, exits the room he remarks, "I chose Liszt because his material always seems to go over big with the ladies."

Lee is a study in contrasts; the fact that he looks and talks like the former Marine he is, with his large frame and frank manner of speaking, and yet plays beautiful classical piano, is just one of many. After all, this is a man who earned a degree in economics and an M.B.A. from two prestigious Ivy League universities, then lived for more than a decade in Alaska "working anywhere I could where I wouldn't have to think." A man who, after four years in the Marines that included a tour in Vietnam, "couldn't wait to get the hell out of the services"; and yet, when speaking about his son, a 20-year-old Marine fresh off a tour of duty in Iraq, he clearly couldn't be more proud.

The Marine Corps is a Hoch family tradition; every male member of Lee's family, starting with his father's generation, has joined the service, including a cousin who spent time at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" POW camp. His father was a full colonel, and, like many kids with a parent in the military, Lee moved around a lot growing up. "I never lived for more than 18 months in the same town, until my father ran the recruiting depot in Kansas City, Kansas for my junior and senior years of high school," he says. Today Lee credits living in so many different locales with giving him "the ability to approach pretty much anybody or anyplace with an open mind."

In 1971, at the age of 17, Lee joined the Marines and began his own stint in the military, which would take him abroad to both Vietnam and Germany. His role in the war was that of forward observer for a mortar platoon, and he spent his combat tour with a USMC rifle squad "attached to the business end of a radio telephone calling in and guiding fire missions." Lee was in Vietnam for a year before being transferred to Germany, where he acted as a translator in the capacity of a noncommissioned officer for the Marines in the German community.

When asked about the war, Lee says simply, "I was really lucky. A lot of people didn't come back, or came home maimed." But while Lee was one of the fortunate ones who made it home safely,. he suffered a different type of blow upon returning to the United States, when he experienced firsthand the negative way some Americans treated Vietnam Vets. "Have you ever been spit on?" he asks. "Because I have. We were despised by many people, including most of our peers. I couldn't stand the way I was treated. I just wanted to get the hell away."

Lee eventually would get away, but first he used his money from the GI Bill to help pay for an undergraduate degree in economics from Yale--"I've always enjoyed the bright-line logic and absolute progressions of math," he says about his choice of majors--followed by an M.B.A. Then, instead of parlaying his impressive degrees into a career as a stockbroker, bank economist, or lawyer, like many of his classmates, he picked up stakes and moved to Alaska. "I went to go sportfishing for a few weeks and ended up staying for 11 years," he remarks.

For Lee, Alaska's wide-open spaces, stunning natural beauty and 18-plus hours of daylight a day during the summer provided a welcome change of scene. He seized the opportunity to explore the Last Frontier, as Alaska has been called, by working a mixed bag of jobs that put him in touch with the elements--ranging from crewman on Dutch Harbor crabbing and fishing boats, to land surveyor on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to construction worker on many native village community projects across the western and northern parts of the state. He says, "Working outdoors, sometimes more than hundred miles from any type of what normally call civilization in the northern Alaskan wilderness, was great. It made me feel like a kid again, exploring the beaches of the military based I grew up on." Eventually, Lee's entrepreneurial spirit led him to start a house-framing business, which he ran until a catastrophic plunge in oil prices put most of the residential building projects in Anchorage on hold.

At that point, Lee made the decision to move from blue-collar to white-collar work. "I had to reactivate the neck-up clause," he quips. He worked in the insurance and annuity area for a while before starting his current financial planning business, the Business Planning Group. He also earned another master's degree, this one in the very specialized field of financial services, and became a certified financial planner and a chartered financial consultant.

“During Lee’s time in Alaska, his personal life as well as his professional life evolved. He got married and became the father of a son and daughter, Jon & Jessica. Eventually, he divorced, and when his children’s mother decided to move to the Puget Sound area, Lee followed, bringing his business with him and setting up shop in Seattle.”

These days, you can find Lee most noon hours at the Club, swimming with the Masters group during the midday workout. Although Lee is a relative newcomer to the Adult Fitness Swimming program, he has thrown himself into the rigorous swim workouts with customary enthusiasm. "I love the camaraderie and the opportunity to swim with and get to know such incredible athletes," he says. "You get to meet people you never would have met otherwise and, because of this, I don't mind so much being the caboose of the swimming train." Remarks his coach, Karen Dugan, "Lee is amazing. He shows up to more workouts than almost anyone. It's been fun to see how much he's improved."

When Lee's son, Jon, graduated from Sammamish High School in 2002, he "made the decision that he wanted to start adult life with a challenge," says Lee. For Jon, that meant keeping with the Hoch family tradition of joining the Marines-- a gutsy choice in a post-September 11 world. "I didn't care about the family tradition," says Lee. "I assumed Jon would go on to college." Upon hearing the news that this son planned to enlist, Lee says, "I was very concerned. But I also felt a pride that is inescapable."

After completing boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Deigo, Jon attended the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton, California, where he demonstrated an aptitude for ocean open-water maneuvers. Next, Jon was sent to Coronado Island, the site of Navy Seal training, where he was one of a only a handful of men in his division to complete the Combat Safety Swimmer's course. Explains Lee, "He was trained to be sort of a lifeguard during combat, as it were."

When Jon had an opportunity to return home for a week prior to taking his qualification test, he worked with Klaus Schenk, the head swim coach the Bellevue Club, who, as a favor to Lee, took time out of his schedule to help Jon improve his ability to hold his breath. "Jon can now hold his breath for almost two minutes while working underwater to save stricken Marines," says Lee. He continues jokingly, "In another life, Klaus and [Master's Coach] Karen had to have been USMC drill instructors. They continually instruct you on technique, constantly encourage you when you come for air and, in a loud voice, thoroughly work you to death while telling you to pick up the damned pace."

In September 2003, Jon left for a multi-country tour as part of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a special operations capable force deployable from a flotilla of Navy ships. The tour began and ended in Iraq and also took the Marines to the United Arab Emirates, Kenya and Djibouti just north of Somalia. In Iraq Jon's unit worked jointly with

British Royal Navy Marine commandos to interdict oil and weapons smugglers from Basra on the Shatt el Arab waterway.

  Because Jon's Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, is a "boat company," he spent most of his time in combat patrolling the water on rigid inflatable boats. Without easy access to a telephone, his contact with loved ones back home was sporadic--a fact Lee acknowledges wasn't easy on him and the rest of the family. Says Lee, "In Vietnam, I remember having about 23 hours a day of pure boredom and one hour a day of sheer terror. But for the parents of a son or daughter at war, it's more like 23 hours a day of pure fear and maybe one hour a day when you don't think about it."

  When Jon's tour ended in March 2004, he was able to spend three weeks at home before returning to Camp Pendleton, where he is currently stationed. During Jon's leave, Lee spent as much time as possible with his son. Reflecting on his own experience returning to the United States from Southeast Asia, Lee says he was happy to see that people had a very different reaction to Jon. "He was treated with great respect," remarks Lee. "His friends were all very appreciative and glad to hear his stories. His sister has really expressed love and admiration for her older brother."

  Strangers too, were eager to convey their appreciation for the contributions our servicemen and woman are making during these turbulent times. One instance in particular sticks with Lee. He recounts, "I was at the airport with Jon and he was wearing his full Marine uniform. Four bearded, middle-aged men stopped him and said they were high school teachers, and did Jon have any advice about how they could help instill in their students Marine Corps discipline and a sense of pride in our country? I almost fell over backward. When school teachers saw me in uniform during the Vietnam era, they usually treated me like I was the enemy."

  Jon's time at Camp Pendleton is most likely coming to an end; Lee says he expects his son will be assigned to another tour of Iraq in the near future, because Marines who enlist for four years usually have two deployments. While Lee can't say he's happy about the prospect of Jon returning to war--in fact, he admits he's terrified--he is extremely proud to be the father of a man he views as a hero. "All the men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan are heroes," he says. "We should be throwing them ticker-tape parades down every Main Street in the country when they come home. As Americans willing to pay the ultimate price for the safety and freedom of those of us at home, they all deserve our everlasting gratitude and admiration. I'd give every one of them a medal if I could."

Additional Bio's:

The Business Planning Group
701 5th Ave, Suite 6870 Seattle, WA. 98104
Phone: 206-386-5700     Fax: 206-260-2721