PITTSBURGH – By day, Jeffrey Horneman is a real estate specialist who defends federal lands against encroachments.
By night, he is a blackbelt Taekwondo instructor who teaches youths to defend themselves in the art of the foot and the fist.
On Monday evenings, Horneman can be found roaming barefoot around a formation of students. He hosts his dojang inside a church auditorium in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania.
During a recent test night, the class wore white doboks, the traditional Korean martial arts uniform students must earn. The smaller boys and girls donned white belts, some as young as five years old. Older teenagers sported green or red belts, indicating they had been training under Horneman for years.
“We’re teaching kids discipline and how to grow mentally,” Horneman said about the class. “Every once in a while, you’ll hear me say to the students, ‘With great power,’ and the student respond, ‘comes great responsibility,’ a line from Spider-Man. That’s what they’re learning here.’
As Horneman called out cadences in Korean, his voice carried through the church auditorium like verbal jabs. The students responded with recited movements called patterns. They attacked the space around them in a series of strikes, forming a dance of elbow thrusts, hip twists, wrist snaps and balanced kicks.
Horneman has been teaching free Taekwondo classes to kids and teenagers for 20 years. He had also taught federal employees during lunch breaks at work until the COVID-19 pandemic pushed many to temporarily work away from the office. His desire is to resume free classes in the federal building downtown if enough employees show interest again.
“I’ve lost over half of my students since the pandemic, and trying to get them back has been difficult,” he said.
Horneman teaches under a Taekwondo nonprofit founded by a catholic priest named Robert Connolly, whom he fondly refers to as “Father.” Father Connolly instructed all age groups, including nuns.
“Some people are already terrified of nuns,” Horneman joked. “And then Father goes and makes them into blackbelts. But he said they were his best students because they were already mentally disciplined.”
Horneman became hooked on martial arts as a teenager living in the ‘80s at the height of kung fu and Chuck Norris movies. He discovered Taekwondo specifically because Father Connolly provided free classes at a local church, a tradition his blackbelt proteges have continued over the decades across multiple states.
The kids concluded their test by breaking wooden boards with bare hands and feet. Their families gathered afterward for a potluck dinner to celebrate their next-belt achievements.
“Jeff Horneman is a saint,” said Cathy Manganaro during dinner, the mother and grandmother of students who trained under Horneman for years.
She has three adopted children enrolled in the same class as her grandchildren. Overall, she has put ten of her kids through the Taekwondo program.
“My three little ones have special needs,” Manganaro said. “They have been diagnosed with autism, ADHD and other intellectual disabilities, but Jeff has all the patience in the world with them.”
Horneman said parents have seen marked improvements with kids’ behavior and focus through martial arts training.
“I can’t say enough good things about the program,” Manganaro said. “They don’t just give you your belt. You have to earn your belt. Taekwondo teaches them respect, discipline, honor.”
With such a large family, the free classes ensured all her kids could attend. Otherwise, she might not have been able to afford an after-school program for so many children.
“The instructors have poured so much into my children. They’re amazing,” Manganaro said.
Now, one of her sons is a fifth-degree black belt instructor.
Over two decades, Horneman has raised a lineage of 12 blackbelt students. His four sons have also taken Taekwondo at some point in their youth, and Nico, his third, has recently returned to the arts to earn his black belt.
“We don’t give somebody a blackbelt just because you attended all your classes. You’ve got to be able to show that you can defend yourself, that you’ve actually earned it. It’s a long, rigorous process,” Horneman said.
Yet, at the same time, he said earning the belt is also the mark of a new beginning.
“What does this mean?” Horneman asks, pointing at his belt, whenever teaching a new group of students.
Some students think the belt means having achieved a master level, but Horneman would be quick to correct them.
“No. It means you’re now a beginner. Once you get your black belt, you have just learned the basics,” he said.
Horneman considers himself a student in every avenue, including his professional career.
“You’re never an expert in life. You’re going to learn till the day you die, and I hold very clear on that,” he said.
Professionally, Horneman works as a real estate specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District.
Horneman first became a land surveyor when he joined the Army Reserve at 17. He later switched into the Air Force Reserve, serving 24 total years in the military. When he earned his surveyor license, it was a high honor in the profession, much like earning his Taekwondo black belt. Both required grueling testing to earn, Horneman said.
A licensed surveyor can review and approve property or boundary work. Being licensed earns the surveyor a seal, which is a career achievement for them.
Land survey work is a matter of precise measurements. Coincidentally, it was less than an inch that put Horneman on this career path.
When he enlisted in the Army, Horneman wanted to become a military police soldier, or MP, with his best friend. They went through the processing station together, but recruiters told them they were a half-inch too short. They had to pick another job specialty.
“What else is there?” Horneman asked. Their minds had been fixed on becoming MPs, so they never considered anything else.
The recruiters looked at their test scores.
“You got good geometry scores. You’re going to be a surveyor,” they were told.
The two young men looked at each other, befuddled, looked back at the recruiter.
“What the heck is that?” they asked.
They went forth and signed up, which turned into a great career choice.
“If I had been taller, I would be an MP right now, and my life story would be completely different,” he said.
Thanks to his military-career choice, Horneman has been able to travel the world. Survey work is in demand everywhere. He has deployed to the Middle East multiple times and served in Germany and Italy where, in Aviano, he visited the town where his grandfather was born.
Now he enjoys a full-time job in the real estate office in Pittsburgh. His world travels have slowed, but the sense of purpose has not.
“I love what I do. I really do,” Horneman said.
During the day, Horneman works full time for the Pittsburgh District's real estate office. The district deals mostly with civil works, not military construction. It has built and maintains dams that form reservoirs, locks and dams to support river navigation, and local-protection projects to reduce river flooding in places like Johnstown and Punxsutawney.
He conducts in-depth research to determine the zoning, topography and land acquisition to support meaningful infrastructure projects. Those projects require federal land, which is constantly at risk of encroachments. Horneman’s specialty helps the district protect property boundaries from landowners who build beyond their property lines.
“Our real estate office is tasked to defend the United States ownership rights as purchased,” he said.
To reduce the encroachment problem, Horneman worked with his team to develop a multi-layered online tool that shows the latest federal property lines across the country. Viewers can use the mapping tool to reference layers such as parcel lines, regulatory boundaries, reservoirs, channel lines and more.
It took five years for Horneman and fellow team members to map every inch of their Pittsburgh District territory, compiling thousands of data points to serve the public.
Yet, nothing worth doing happens overnight, Horneman acknowledges. Whether it comes to earning a belt, achieving a licensed seal, or producing a digital mapping tool, Horneman said every achievement is part of a lifelong journey.
Professionals are never masters in their craft, no matter what pinnacle they reach, Horneman said.
“Father always considered himself a student, even being the highest ranking person in the room,” he said. “I wholeheartedly follow Father’s philosophy, not only in Taekwondo but in life. I will never consider myself an ‘expert surveyor.’ Each day I am learning more. I am a humble student, forever.”
EDITOR NOTE:
Members of the public who want to view federal property lines can access the Civil Works Land Data Migration tool online: USACE Civil Works Viewer (army.mil)