The MOO DUK KWAN 무덕관 and Tang Soo Do 당수도 - Part IV

Tang Soo Do Comes to America: The Moo Duk Kwan's Global Export

The Military Connection

The first Americans to encounter Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan were U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea during and after the Korean War. Between the mid-1950s and early 1960s, returning service members began opening Tang Soo Do schools across the United States, bringing with them the ranks and knowledge they had gained during their postings in Korea. These were men who had trained in the art as it existed during its Tang Soo Do era — before the renaming to Soo Bahk Do.

The historical record identifies several early American practitioners: Dale T. Drouillard (Dan Bon #757, Wyandotte, Michigan) became the first American to earn a black belt in the Moo Duk Kwan. Robert Thompson opened a school in Dayton, Ohio, and Lawrence Seiberlich established one in St. Paul, Minnesota. Each returned with a version of the art as taught during their time in Korea.

Chuck Norris and the Popularization of Tang Soo Do

The most consequential American practitioner of Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan was Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris. From 1958 to 1962, Norris was stationed at Osan Air Base in South Korea as a U.S. Air Force military policeman. During this posting, he began training in Tang Soo Do under Jae Chul Shin (Dan Bon #698), a direct student of Hwang Kee, who had been stationed at the same base as a Korean Air Force martial arts instructor. Norris earned his black belt under Shin.

Upon returning to the United States in 1962, Norris continued to train and compete, eventually becoming a six-time world tournament champion by 1968. He opened a chain of schools and created what he called American Tang Soo Do — a synthesis of Moo Duk Kwan-style Tang Soo Do with Judo, boxing, and elements from other systems. In 1973, he founded the National Tang Soo Do Congress (NTC) as a governing body, serving as president with Pat E. Johnson as vice president. In 1979, he disbanded the NTC and formed the United Fighting Arts Federation (UFAF); Johnson later left and reformed the NTC. When Norris later developed his own synthesis system, Chun Kuk Do, he transitioned UFAF to it. Still, the Tang Soo Do schools he had established and the practitioners he had trained continued to operate independently.

The cultural impact of Norris's films — Missing in Action, Code of Silence, and Walker: Texas Ranger — introduced Tang Soo Do, a martial art rooted in the Moo Duk Kwan, to tens of millions of Americans who had never heard of the Moo Duk Kwan. More than any other individual, Norris put Tang Soo Do on the American cultural map.

Grandmaster Jae Chul Shin and the World Tang Soo Do Association

The most institutionally significant Tang Soo Do practitioner in America was Jae Chul Shin (1936–2012, Dan Bon #698). Born in Seoul, Shin began training in Tang Soo Do at age 12 in 1948 under Hwang Kee. By the time he reached Cho Dan (first-degree midnight blue belt), he was already serving as an assistant instructor at the Central Dojang. In 1958, he was drafted into the South Korean Air Force as a martial arts instructor, where he began teaching American service members at Osan Air Base — including Chuck Norris.

In 1968, at Hwang Kee's request and with Chuck Norris's sponsorship, Shin came to the United States to pursue graduate studies at Rutgers University. He established the U.S. Tang Soo Do Federation in Burlington, New Jersey — the first formal Tang Soo Do organization in America — and served as the U.S. representative for the Korean Soo Bahk Do Association. Black Belt Magazine honored him that same year by dedicating a full chapter to him in its book "20th Century Warriors."

In 1982, dissatisfied with the organization's direction, Shin resigned from the board and — along with Ki Yun Yi and William D. Clingan — founded the World Tang Soo Do Association (WTSDA) at a charter convention in Philadelphia on November 13–14, 1982. The WTSDA, headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina, grew into the largest Tang Soo Do organization in the world, claiming over 160,000 members as of 1996. Shin taught and led the organization until his death on July 9, 2012, at age 75.

In Part V, The Organizational Landscape: Tang Soo Do After the Moo Duk Kwan