WHO IS THE SARGE? From Bangkok to Billboard — U.S. Army Infantry Veteran Turns Four Lives Into a Colorado Springs Music Movement
ACT I: BANGKOK — 1984
The story starts an ocean away from Colorado. Born March 20, 1984, in Bangkok, Thailand, Michael K. Ung's earliest years included only a brief time with a foster mother. The people who raised him were Marilyn and Ted Ung — they came to Thailand, adopted him, brought him to America, and raised him as their own. The family settled in New York in the late '80s. He doesn't remember much of the room where it started. He remembers what those years taught him: nothing is handed to you — not a rank, not a stage, not a name. Everything after that was earned.
ACT II: THE EAST COAST KID — New York & New Jersey
Raised in Brooklyn, New York, little Mike Ung was — by his own admission — a mess. A horrible kid, in and out of school. That's what got him kicked out of school in Brooklyn and sent to the New York Military Academy, then on to Toms River, New Jersey. Sundays he was the choir kid, learning harmony in a room full of voices bigger than his. He was also classically trained on piano — the first instrument, and the foundation under everything he'd later build in the studio. Saturdays he was on the tae kwon do mat, earning his way toward a 1st Dan black belt one bruised shin at a time. Somewhere in there he picked up a nickname — "the Unginator" — for the way he carried himself: chin up, shoulders back, already moving like someone with somewhere to be.
A year and two summers at the New York Military Academy, then Toms River, New Jersey, high school class of 2002. But the discipline didn't come until basic training. That's where the mess became the mission.
ACT III: THE SOLDIER — Fort Benning to Iraq to Afghanistan
In 2004, out of Elizabeth, New Jersey, Mike Ung joined the United States Army and shipped to basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, that May. He was fourth-generation Army — his dad was third — raised in a long line of military family. The line continues: his oldest daughter is fifth-generation Army — currently serving in the National Guard after active duty as an 88M. The red clay of Benning sorted him into the Infantry — and the Infantry made him.
First stop: 1-22 Infantry, "Regulars by God," 4th Infantry Division — deployed to Iraq for OIF 5-7. He reenlisted to move to Fort Drum, New York, with the 10th Mountain Division: 2-22 Infantry, then 2-87 Infantry, 3rd Brigade "Catamounts," under Col. Kimo Gallahue and Sgt. Maj. Andy Spano — deployed to Afghanistan's Wardak province for OEF 9-10. Back home, he helped stand up 2-5 Infantry, 1st Armored Division, at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he finished his service — medically boarded out carrying combat PTSD, anxiety, severe depression, and more.
He wore E-5 Sergeant — a non-commissioned officer, the backbone rank. "You only call officers sir — we worked for a living." The rank, the bearing, the voice — all of it comes from those years. The Sarge is who the Army made him.
His infantry career ran the full table: M2A3 Bradley driver, rifleman, grenadier, and crew-served heavy weapons — serving as AG and AB on the 240B machine gun before qualifying as a .50 cal operator. In Afghanistan he served as personal .50 cal gunner for a two-man Air Force TAC-P team, and along the way became acquainted with Black Hawk Down war heroes Col. Steele and 1st Sgt. Eversmann.
The certifications stacked up behind the experience: certified airlift/air load planner for the AMC, Master Driver for all MRAP vehicle systems through MRAP University in Texarkana, Combat Life Saver and Advanced Combat Life Saver, expert rifleman — and the Combat Infantry Badge, signifying he has taken enemy fire and fired back.
THE TURNING POINT — El Paso, 2013
He left the Army in 2013 out of Fort Bliss, Texas — 2-5 Infantry, 1st Armored Division — on a medical board, carrying combat PTSD, anxiety, and depression. The transition out breaks a lot of soldiers. It nearly broke him.
That's where The Sarge picked up music and used it as medicine.
He started his journey in El Paso, Texas — fell in love with the city and called it home. He got remarried to his second wife there. And in 2015, he moved to Colorado Springs to restart his life, raising four daughters — and building everything that came next from scratch.
ACT IV: THE ARTIST — From the Battlefield to the Booth
Out of uniform, the first thing he did was pick up a microphone — and he never really put it down. The Sarge is a hip-hop and pop-punk-rock performing artist with a sound as restless as his résumé: hard drums and barked verses on one track, soaring pop-punk choruses on the next, always with the precision of a man who learned timing under pressure.
But the voice is only half the story. He's a producer and sound designer with a BS in Audio Production from Full Sail University — currently a music major at UCCS — and from the tracking room to the final master, if it hits your speakers, he touched it. His Colorado Springs recording studio handles recording, mixing, mastering, full production, and sound design for film, cinematic media, cartoons, and video games, with hourly sessions for independent artists. The room stays busy with local talent — he's provided music production services for Colorado Springs artists including Hazadis, Austin Toker, Nate Driggs, and Witch Hound — and his sound design and Foley credits include the horror short films PEEK, directed by Mingway Lee, and THE DEVILS BEND, directed by Louie Duran.
The industry noticed. He's a published artist on Billboard Hip Hop and HipHopSince1987 — the kind of co-signs you don't buy and can't fake.
ACT V: THE PROMOTER — Building Stages Instead of Waiting for Them
He doesn't wait for a stage. He builds one.
Bust Out the Box is his monthly multi-genre music residency at the Wagon Wheel Sports Bar & Concert Hall in Colorado Springs, co-run with AntiFamouz Ent: every month a different genre, one stage, and a night you can't get anywhere else. Jazz-funk-rock one month, underground horrorcore the next — the only rule is that the bill is built on merit and every artist gets promoted hard and paid a share of the tickets they move.
He's been promoting shows for a decade — between 2016 and 2021 his former company Mountain High X Entertainment left its mark on the local scene, and today that chapter is legacy, carried forward by The Sarge LLC. The fall is stacked: Bust Out the Box #11 lands Saturday, September THE DEVILS NIGHT26, 2026, with Dain Silva + the Mighty Potent Force bringing jazz-funk-rock energy; then #12 "HE DEVILS NIGHT"" on Friday, October 30 — an underground horrorcore Halloween costume party headlined by Assassinate (21+, $15 door, $10 in costume). And on October 24, he joins Witch Hound on stage as guest vocalist for their "Second Summoning" at Vultures — possibly the band's last show for a while.
ACT VI: THE STUDENT, THE DAD, THE GRANDPA
The part that doesn't fit the poster: he's currently a UCCS music student — choir, voice, Pitch Peak a cappella, theater — and serves as a music student administration officer, working on his degree between shows, sessions, and sound checks. Still training. Still a student of the thing he's spent his life doing.
And under all of it, the engine: he's a proud father of four daughters, all in college, and a grandpa. Every stage, every session, every late night at the Wagon Wheel — that's what it's for.
"I've lived four lives and I earned every single one of them," says The Sarge. "The Army made me a Sergeant. The studio made me a producer. The stage made me an artist. But nobody handed me any of it — not the rank, not the Billboard publication, not the residency. I built Bust Out the Box the same way I built everything else: brick by brick, show by show, with my own two hands. And I'm just getting started. Stay Different."
Two words. That's the whole creed, printed on everything, shouted from every stage: Stay Different. In an industry built on copies, it's a battle plan.
So — who is The Sarge? He's the kid from Bangkok who refused to stay small. He's the sergeant who traded his chevrons for a soundboard and never lost the bearing. He's the choir kid and the black belt, the veteran in the classroom, the dad in the crowd watching his daughters win. He's a recording studio, a residency, a movement — and a reminder that the best names aren't given.
They're earned.
ABOUT THE SARGE LLC: The Sarge LLC is the independent music company of Michael K. Ung, aka The Sarge — U.S. Army Infantry veteran turned hip-hop and pop-punk-rock artist, producer, and sound designer (BS in Audio Production, Full Sail University). Published artist on Billboard Hip Hop and HipHopSince1987. Founder of BUST OUT THE BOX, the monthly multi-genre music residency at Wagon Wheel Sports Bar & Concert Hall in Colorado Springs. Recording studio offering recording, mixing, mastering, full production, and sound design. Stay Different.
Media contact: The Sarge LLC — THESARGE10MHX@GMAIL.COM — (719) 229-5212 — https://www.thesarge.net/
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