South Korean drummers entertain troops gathered at Camp Red Cloud’s Mitchell’s restaurant for an Asian Pacific Heritage Month celebration. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)

CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — For 2nd Lt. David Bryant, a tour in South Korea with the 2nd Infantry Division is a chance to learn about his native culture.

The 2nd ID Headquarters Headquarters Company executive officer’s father also served with 2nd ID in South Korea in the 1980s. His father met and married Bryant’s mother, a South Korean woman, during that tour, the young officer told a group of soldiers gathered Monday at Camp Red Cloud’s Mitchell’s Restaurant to celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month.

Growing up a Korean-American taught Bryant why the United States is famous as a melting pot, he said.

Some of his earliest memories are of birthday parties, when his father was stationed in Germany, where there were two tables — one serving spicy South Korean cabbage and beef ribs and another serving American food.

Bryant attended school in Tongduchoen when his father did a second tour in South Korea. There, he said, 80 percent of the children in his class were “Korean-Americans” like him.

When the family moved to the United States, Bryant went to a school where he was the only Asian in his class. He recalled other children asking, “What is wrong with your eyes?” or “Why does your skin look yellow?”

Then, Bryant said, he moved with his family to Hawaii, where he was exposed to many Asian and Pacific cultures. “That was where I realized why the U.S. is called the melting pot.”

The tour to South Korea is a chance to get in touch with his roots, Bryant added.

“Every time I leave post, I take in as much as I can,” he said. “I hope to pass on my culture to my children.”

Maj. Gen. George A. Higgins, 2nd ID commanding general, said Bryant’s story is not unique.

“The power America reflects to the world is it doesn’t matter where you are from,” Higgins said. “You are an American.”