I wasn’t familiar with the name Ahn Chang-ho but it was pretty obvious by the way they had him introduce himself that he was a real life historical figure. So I looked him up and while he didn’t spend time in New York or attend Columbia University he was amazing. 

From his wiki page: Ahn Chang-ho was a Korean independence activist and one of the early leaders of the Korean-American immigrant community in the United States. He is sometimes referred to by his pen name “Dosan”. 

When he returned to Korea from the U.S. in 1907, he established the New Korea Society, the most important organization in the fight against the Japanese occupation of Korea. He also established the Young Korean Academy in San Francisco in 1913 and was a key member in the founding of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai in 1919. 

Ahn is also one of two men believed to have written the lyrics of the Aegukga, the South Korean national anthem. He had seven children, including U.S. Navy officer Susan Ahn Cuddy.

Susan Ahn Cuddy was the first female gunnery officer in the United States Navy. She was also the first Asian-American woman to join the Navy in 1942, where she served until 1946. 

She felt joining the Navy was a way she could help free Korea from Japanese occupation and was eager to join the Navy to fight the Japanese. She worked her way up in the Navy, becoming a Navy LINK instructor in 1943, teaching aviators how to maneuver in a simulator cockpit, and later becoming the first female aerial gunnery officer in the Navy. In other words, she trained fighter pilots how to shoot down enemy aircraft. She eventually became a Lieutenant and went on to work for US Navy Intelligence, the Library of Congress, and the NSA. 

In April 1947 she married Chief Petty Officer Francis “Frank” Cuddy, an Irish-American. They defied laws criminalizing interracial relations and wed at the only place that would marry them: a Navy chapel in Washington, D.C. Francis also worked for Navy Intelligence and the NSA. He was a code-breaker and helped the United States free Korea.

During the Cold War, Susan Ahn Cuddy was in charge of a think tank of over 300 agents working in the Russia section. She worked on many top secret projects for the Department of Defense and other agencies during her service with the US government until 1959.