Jack Joffe joined the United States Air Force in June 1969.  While stationed in Thailand, he trained in Lotus under the founder from February 7, 1972 to May 1, 1973.  Jack earned his black belt on March 19, 1973.

Jack said he is responsible for translating techniques 61-100 into English phonetics so the American GI's could pronounce them better.  Jack also stated that his class also started doing the "dragon" on the left side, as well as the right side for the fun of it, even though Ajarn Precha did not require it to be done on both sides for belt-testing promotion purposes.

Jack also stated he stays in contact with the founder through mail, and that he received a promotion certificate from Ajarn Precha Mahachanavong stating that on October 2, 2007, Jack is promoted to the rank of 7th degree black belt.

Jack is a retired chiropractor and is currently living in the Santa Clarita, California area.

Ajarn Precha Mahachanavong stopped issuing these lower level certificates for two reasons:

1.  The cost of printing had to be passed on to the students, and we were low paid air force personnel.  He was trying to keep our expenditures down.  That was very considerate of Ajarn to be thinking about his students.

2.  Ajarn Precha had to use his time to make up these certificates, and he thought his time would be better spent teaching Lotus than doing paperwork.  He was right of course.

This is an enlarged copy of Jack's black belt identification card.

Letter of appreciation for self-defense demonstration.