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I’m always asked about my favorite stories or interviews from my journalism career. And every time, I have to stop and think.

That could be because I started in the business when we used carbon paper in the typewriter to get multiple copies. When every guy wore his hair like Jackie Chan. When Ayu Ting Ting’s father was still in junior high school. Meaning, I’ve been doing it for a few years now, and the memories can get hazy. But several moments do stand out.

The first was in December 1980 in Hawaii, where I was in my second TV job. It was a normal evening in the newsroom, until the bulletin rang from the teletype machine. “John Lennon Shot,” came the first words about the killing of the former Beatle in New York. The news was shocking to fans around the world. Then, a few paragraphs later, the murder was brought home.

The suspect, Mark Chapman, gave his address as Honolulu. And he was married to a Hawaii woman named Gloria. I knew there would be a huge international rush to get to her for comments. I worked quickly to make contact with her and offered some private advice on dealing with the media.

“Everyone’s going to be bombarding you. Why don’t you hold one news conference, and you can do it in our studio,” I offered. Gloria agreed, my TV station got global exposure, and I’ll never forget her rather peculiar statement as her husband sat in a Manhattan jail cell 8,000 kilometers away for the killing of a music icon: “As a Beatles fan, I mourn the death of John Lennon,” she said.

A second memorable news moment came in 1985 when I was a TV reporter in Portland, Oregon. I asked to interview a visiting astronaut who had become the first Asian-American in space a few months before. Ellison Onizuka was a hero to many, and not just because he also happened to be from Hawaii.

After the usual career questions, I asked him what was in his mind as he was rocketing through the clouds. He said, “I’m looking down at Earth and thinking, ‘How in the world did I get up here?’ ” A funny, humble answer.

I cried with the world when Onizuka was killed seven months later with six crewmates in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger as it lifted off on Jan. 28, 1986.

My career led me here to Asia in 1990, where I worked and lived through several historic events — the Japanese economic bubble bursting (1990), the handover of Hong Kong to China (1997) and the Asian financial crisis (1997) that hurt countries big and small, with Indonesia one of the hardest hit.

But a live telephone interview I did in June 1996 for the “NBC Asia Evening News” remains my most vivid career highlight, mainly because it’s still an ongoing story.

Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi had just been released after 72 months of house arrest. I asked her if she was worried about staying free, if she was OK. She replied: “I’m alright, I’m not worried about my freedom. I’m a free person. I was free when I was under detention because my mind was free. And my mind will remain free.”

I can’t help but think now that she knew more imprisonment was coming — in all, 15 years out of 21 until her latest release last November. I hear the word “hero” tossed around a lot in the media today. Very few come close to Aung San Suu Kyi, a true hero who’s made a lifelong sacrifice for the love of country and people.

Until this story comes to a peaceful, democratic resolution, I will always place my brief conversation with her at the top of my list of career memories. And I’m hoping that day will come soon.

Hawaii native Dalton Tanonaka is the anchor of Metro TV’s “Indonesia Now” program on Saturday mornings at 9 a.m. and host of “TalkIndonesia” on Sundays at 9 a.m.. He also co-anchors “Asean Today,” a monthly program that debuts regionally and in Indonesia on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. He can be reached at dalton@metrotvnews.com.