“Transient nuisance odor” hits West Loch and Waipahu Intermediate School, sends 7 to hospital

Emergency responders could not determine the cause of the gas smell that sickened students at Waipahu Intermediate School. The smell was reported from several areas near Pearl Harbor.

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http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091113_Gas_smell_disrupts_Waipahu_school_day.html

Gas smell disrupts Waipahu school day

Responding fire crews discover no odor or source in the area

By Star-Bulletin staff

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Nov 13, 2009

City ambulance crews took seven people from Waipahu Intermediate School to Hawaii Medical Center West yesterday following complaints of a strong smell of gas.

Three ambulances were sent to the school after 11 a.m. The patients included two students under the age of 13 and five adults, according to Emergency Medical Services spokesman Bryan Cheplic

The patients all complained of nausea, dizziness and lightheadedness, Cheplic said. They were taken to the hospital in stable condition, Cheplic said

Another ambulance was sent to a residence on nearby Pupumomi Street because of similar complaints. One resident was treated and released, Cheplic said.

The Honolulu Fire Department sent two fire hazardous material crews, three engines and two battalion chiefs to Waipahu Intermediate, Pupumomi Street and Honowai Elementary, also in Waipahu, at about the same time after several people complained about the gas smell

Firefighters investigated along with the Gas Co. and federal firefighters but could not find any gas in the air or any source of the smell, said Honolulu fire Capt. Terry Seelig.

A Navy spokesman said federal firefighters responded to a call about a gaseous smell in West Loch at about 11 a.m. but could not pinpoint a source. No one reported injuries in that call.

Seelig described the incident as a “transient nuisance odor” that may have drifted into the area and disturbed people.

No one needed medical attention at Honowai Elementary, he said.

November 11, 2009

New Law Limits Military use of Open Burn Pits

Doug from Seacoast Anti-Pollution League in Portsmouth, New Hampshire sent a post to the Military Toxics Project listserve about a new law to limit the military use of open burn pits overseas. However, as Doug notes the law “Doesn’t cover domestic bases, nor everything we’d want left unburned, but DoD has to develop a plan to eliminate burning so it’s a start!”

Open Burn/Open Detonation (OB/OD) pits have been a commonly used method for the military to dispose of old munitions and other waste. OB/OD was used in Makua valley as recently as 1994. The Wai’anae community organized with leadership from Malama Makua to oppose the Army’s permit application to the EPA to conduct routine OB/OD disposal in Makua. (Up to that point, unpermitted OB/OD disposal was conducted under the auspices of “training”.) The Army was forced to abandon its OB/OD plans and close the disposal site, which has not been decontaminated.

Here’s the article on the Newsweek blog about this new law:

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/10/28/obama-to-sign-law-protecting-troops-from-toxic-fumes.aspx

Posted Wednesday, October 28, 2009 11:30 AM

Obama to Sign Law Protecting Troops From Toxic Fumes

Katie Connolly

A few months ago I wrote a short piece about the startling practice of using open-air burn pits to incinerate waste on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. The toxic fumes from these pits have been linked to a host of debilitating illnesses in troops and contractors who worked near them. Here’s an excerpt from my original piece:

Josh Eller, a military contractor stationed in Iraq in 2006, was driving through Balad Air Base when he spotted the wild dog. He wasn’t sure what was in its mouth—but when Eller saw two bones, he knew he was looking at a human arm. The dog had pulled the limb from an open-air “burn pit” on the base used to incinerate waste. Eller says it’s “one of the worst things I have seen.”

Since hearing Eller’s story, lawyer Elizabeth Burke has signed on 190 additional clients with complaints about burn pits at 18 military sites in Iraq and Afghanistan. By now, she says, all pits should have been replaced by pollution-controlled incinerators. She’s filed suits in 17 states against KBR, the company contracted to provide waste-disposal services at these bases, accusing it of negligence and harm. Burke was shocked to learn what her clients saw incinerated: Humvees, batteries, unexploded ordnance, gas cans, mattresses, rocket pods, and plastic and medical waste (including body parts, which may explain the arm). Fumes containing carcinogenic dioxins, heavy metals, and particulates, according to an Army–Air Force risk assessment, waft freely across bases.

Burke’s plaintiffs mostly suffer from chronic or unusual medical complications that they believe were caused by burn-pit exposure. Shawn Sheridan, who served two tours at Balad, says black smoke from the pit was so thick at times he couldn’t see through it with night-vision goggles. Sheridan, 26, was healthy when he enlisted six years ago. Now he has a kidney disease, chronic bronchitis, and a painful skin condition. (Read the full story here.)

Today Eller, Sheridan, and the many others affected by these pits are getting some good news, thanks in part to the work of Rep. Tim Bishop, Democrat of New York, and Rep. Carol Shea Porter, Democrat of New Hampshire, who have championed their cause for months. They successfully lobbied for the inclusion of provisions to limit the use of these toxic pits in the National Defense Authorization Act, which the president will sign into law this afternoon. Under this new law, open-air burning of medical and hazardous waste will be prohibited except where the Defense secretary deems there is no alternative, the DoD must justify the use of burn pits to Congress, and it will develop a plan to eliminate the use of burn pits entirely.

The legislation won’t repair Sheridan’s lungs or kidneys, but it will force the DoD to limit troop exposure to potentially hazardous fumes in the future. That really shouldn’t be so hard. According to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, only about half the incinerators the military purchased four years ago to help eliminate the use of burn pits are currently in operation. The public would never stand for having burn pits operate in a residential area in the U.S. Now, eight years into the war in Afghanistan, U.S. service members might start receiving that same courtesy.

(You can read more about burn pits in Kelly Kennedy’s excellent reports for Military Times.)

November 11, 2009November 11, 2009

USS Arizona artifacts are sacred – so are Native Hawaiian burials

The Navy and the veterans community have rightfully rallied to stop the auctioning of artifacts salvaged from the USS Arizona after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The silver plated service set is considered ‘sacred’, and is being claimed as property of the Navy. It is good to have a sense of history and the sacred. But it is hypocrisy when the military fails to extend the same degree of respect to Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) sacred sites and burials in areas touched by military activity. For example in Waimanalo, the expansion of recreational cabins by the Air Force is evicting the bones of Kanaka Maoli ancestors from their resting place to make room for…toilets. On Mokapu the Marines golf and build their homes and training facilities atop the vast Heleloa sand dunes, a well known burial site. Years ago, sand was mined from the dunes to build the base, and now bone fragments are turning up in the driveways, pavements and foundations of many military homes on base. Military homes are literally built with the bones of Native Hawaiians! I wonder how well those families sleep.

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http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091111/NEWS01/911110353/Artifacts+off+auction+block

Posted on: Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Artifacts off auction block

Navy raises ownership questions over recovered items from USS Arizona

By Christie Wilson

Advertiser Staff Writer

A partial silver-plated service set salvaged from the USS Arizona just months after the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor was withdrawn from auction yesterday after the Navy took action to claim the artifacts.

Cowan’s Auctions Inc. of Cincinnati was planning to sell the items at a Dec. 9 auction and estimated the 24-piece lot would fetch up to $20,000. When Navy officials learned of the auction through inquiries by The Advertiser, they contacted Cowan’s to discuss ownership of the artifacts, according to a spokesman from the Naval History & Heritage Command, which is part of the Department of Navy.

“We have withdrawn the items from our Dec. 9 auction and have encouraged the present owner to strongly consider donating the collection to the Navy or to the USS Arizona Memorial,” said auctioneer Wes Cowan, who has appeared on the PBS shows “Antiques Roadshow” and “History Detectives.”

U.S. military veterans and others were dismayed that artifacts from the USS Arizona might be sold to the highest bidder, because the battleship is considered hallowed ground. Many of the 1,177 crewmen who died on the ship are entombed in its hull.

Cowan said the artifacts, which include a teapot, saucers and a candlestick from the officers’ mess, were received on consignment from the daughter of Navy diver Carl Keenum, who collected the pieces while salvaging remains, ammunition, weaponry and personal items from the stricken U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Keenum was serving as a construction battalion master of arms aboard the USS Oklahoma during the Pearl Harbor attack and helped saved the lives of 37 crewmates in the hours after the ship was sunk by Japanese torpedoes, according to the auctioneer.

A statement from Cowan’s Auctions said Keenum brought home the service pieces as souvenirs of his wartime experiences, just as countless other soldiers, sailors and other military personnel saved mementos of World War II.

The 30-year Navy veteran died in 1964.

“While Keenum is no longer alive to tell the story of how he acquired the silver plate, there is little doubt that he did so with the belief that it would have only been discarded,” the auction house statement said. “Indeed, the shipboard salvage operations at Pearl (Harbor) produced mountains of trash that was simply piled onto scows, towed to sea and dumped. Such would have likely been the fate of Keenum’s souvenirs.”

The current owner of the artifacts decided to sell the collection when a family member became ill with leukemia, Cowan’s Auctions said. “The consignor was genuinely surprised to learn that the souvenirs saved from almost certain destruction were not hers to sell,” the statement said.

Keenum’s daughter wishes to remain anonymous and would not comment, Cowan said in an interview.

“In her eyes, her dad did nothing wrong, he was a hero and he kept these not for their monetary but historical value,” he said.

Navy Region Hawaii issued a statement yesterday saying the issue of ownership of the artifacts is being reviewed by the Navy’s legal staff and the Naval History & Heritage Command.

The statement also reiterated the longstanding position that “U.S. Navy craft and their associated contents remain the property of the U.S. Navy unless expressly abandoned or title is transferred by appropriate U.S. government authority. Property rights are established in the U.S. Constitution and international maritime law.”

The statement said the USS Arizona “is considered one of our nation’s most sacred and hallowed historical sites.”

“We cherish the memory of the sailors who sacrificed in World War II. The significance of USS Arizona should never be diminished or cheapened.”

The lot of 24 pieces includes a candlestick with a raised Navy seal, a pedestal bowl, sauce boat and two lids, a tray, seven saucers marked Gorham, six bowls, a teapot marked Reed & Barton, a cruet stand, and several pieces of silver burners.

Salvage diver and former merchant marine Gary Gianotti, 38, of Milford, Conn., alerted The Advertiser to the impending auction. He said he has been involved in the recovery of Revolutionary War cannons, flags and other relics with a mind toward preservation.

“I was really shocked. I could not believe that (the auctioneer) would condone allowing sacred relics to that shipwreck being sold off,” Gianotti said.

Gianotti said he hopes the artifacts are returned to Hawaii.

Arthur Herriford, 87, national president of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, said he was relieved to hear the items will not be sold at auction.

“It’s sacred material and we feel very strongly that you don’t monkey around with anything like that,” said Herriford, of Sherman Oaks, Calif. “The Arizona Memorial museum is the place it should be.”

The auction catalog indicated the USS Arizona Memorial had written to Keenum’s heirs in 1997 expressing interest in acquiring the items as a gift from the family.

Paul DePrey, superintendent of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the USS Arizona Memorial, has said the National Park Service would very much like to own the partial serving set, but was not planning to bid for it.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.

November 10, 2009

Will removing U.S. bases from Japan diminish the utility of Pearl Harbor?

Written from the perspective of a U.S. naval strategist, this editorial in the Taipei Times argues that Pearl Harbor continues to be vital as a U.S. naval base. The author, James Holmes gives a concise explanation of how Admiral Mahan’s military theory led to the invasion and occupation of Hawai’i, shaping U.S. policy to the present. He describes the military importance of Ke Awalau o Pu’uloa (the true name of the inlet occupied by Pearl Harbor). He unabashedly describes the U.S. in the Pacific as an “empire”.

He got a few things wrong in his history of Hawai’i. After two attempts, the U.S. ultimately failed to secure a formal treaty of annexation. President Cleveland rejected the first treaty in 1895. Opposition from Hawaiian nationals helped to defeat the second treaty of annexation in 1897. All the U.S. got was a joint resolution claiming to annex Hawai’i. In typical imperial fashion, he arrogantly disregards the sovereignty and rights of Hawai’i and treats the nations and peoples of the Pacific as pawns in a grand chess match.

What is most interesting is his argument that without secure bases in Japan, the military importance of Hawai’i to the U.S. would diminish:

Today, there’s just Japan to anchor the far terminus of the US base network. If the US were denied access to Japanese bases, Hawaii would lose much of its importance for the first time in over a century.

This is all the more reason to support the anti-bases movement in Japan and Okinawa. It’s way overdue for the Pacific to become once again Ka Moana Nui (The Great Ocean) that connects the peoples of the Pacific, rather than an “American Lake” where the Pacific is held hostage to military strategy and empire.

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http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2009/11/11/2003458162

Why Pearl Harbor is still essential

By James Holmes

Wednesday, Nov 11, 2009

The strategic value of Hawaii was evident a quarter-century ago, when I visited Pearl Harbor as a midshipman in the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. The US Navy was building up toward 600 ships; its Pacific Fleet had an overbearing Soviet Far East Fleet to contend with.

The navy could do none of this without island bases connecting the US to maritime Asia, no matter how many gee-whiz warships and aircraft it built.

Islands like Hawaii support the exercise of US sea power far from US shores. In turn, US sea power underwrites free navigation for commercial shipping in Asia, assuring that goods traveling by sea reach their users unmolested. That’s why, when I returned to Pearl Harbor late last month, the base had lost neither its bustle nor its sense of purpose — although land campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq now obscure the navy’s day-to-day upkeep of the global system.

Still, Hawaii’s strategic importance now depends more on deft alliance diplomacy than it did in the 1980s, when the US military still enjoyed unfettered access to Philippine bases at the juncture of the East China and South China seas. Today, there’s just Japan to anchor the far terminus of the US base network. If the US were denied access to Japanese bases, Hawaii would lose much of its importance for the first time in over a century.

Many things drew foreigners to the Hawaiian archipelago in the decades after 1778, when Captain James Cook dropped anchor off Kauai. New England missionaries came starting in 1820, intent on saving souls. Planters followed later in the 19th century, hoping to make their fortunes raising crops in the rich volcanic soil. But in geopolitics, as in real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. Geography prompted the US to annex the islands and, ultimately, admit them to statehood.

Writing in 1893, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, the US’ Copernicus or “evangelist” of sea power, offered a sharp analysis of the Hawaiian chain’s geopolitical worth. Unlike their sail-driven forebears, steamships could defy winds and currents, but they also demanded fuel in bulk.

Mahan said that a US with commercial interests in Asia must forge a “chain” of island bases to support the transpacific voyages of steam-propelled merchantmen and their protectors, armored warships.

He said “the Hawaiian group possesses unique importance” among the candidates for Pacific bases, “not from its intrinsic commercial value, but from its favorable position for maritime and military control.”

The open sea resembled a featureless plain, with few important geographic assets. The rarer these features, the more valuable. If there was only one island or archipelago, it held matchless strategic value.

Hawaii met that description. It occupied the center of a circle whose radius equaled the distance from San Francisco to Honolulu, some 3,860km. It sat midway between the US west coast and Asia’s “second island chain,” which runs from northern Japan southward through New Guinea.

British vessels transiting between Canada and New Zealand or Australia routinely called at Honolulu, which lay along their course.

Public works would soon amplify Hawaii’s importance for US maritime power. Once engineers finished digging a canal across the Central American Isthmus, a new sea route would spring into being. Ships steaming from Atlantic seaports to China or Japan would transit through the Caribbean Sea rather than circumnavigating South America. They too would pass near Hawaii, making Honolulu an ideal way station.

In keeping with Mahanian logic, US strategists like Theodore Roosevelt coveted sole possession of the archipelago. Rival sea powers Japan, Britain and Germany had voiced interest in acquiring some or all of the islands. Potential foes, it appeared, could obtain bases off the US west coast. This would not do. Washington must extend US rule to Hawaii to foreclose this latent naval threat.

However compelling Mahan’s brief for acquiring the islands, his appeals remained abstract until 1898. Anti-imperialist president Grover Cleveland scotched an annexation bid in 1893, before the Spanish-American War concentrated minds.

The US became a Pacific power overnight after wresting the Philippines from Spain. The US needed an island bridge to its new Pacific empire. Accordingly, Congress annexed Hawaii at the behest of president William McKinley.

Now, as then, Mahan’s logic is irresistible. Pearl Harbor will remain essential as long as the US remains an Asian sea power — a status the US has no intention of surrendering. But unless Washington manages its alliance with Tokyo wisely, Hawaii could become a bridge to nowhere.

James Holmes is an associate professor at the US Naval War College.

November 5, 2009November 5, 2009

“Voices from Okinawa” at Kumu Kahua Theater, plus events honoring the author

Voices from Okinawa

by Jon Shirota

http://www.kumukahua.org/0910okinawa.html

Kumu Kahua Theatre

46 Merchant Street, Honolulu, Hawai`i 96813

Box Office Phone: (808) 536-4441

Email: kumukahuatheatre@hawaiiantel.net • URL: www.kumukahua.org

Thursday, Friday & Saturday 8pm: November 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 27, 28; December 3, 4, 5, 2009

Sundays 2pm: November 8, 15, 22, 29; December *6, 2009

(No show Thursday, November 26, because of Thanksgiving)

*American Sign Language Interpretation available

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Haisai Gusuyoo!

I attended the preview of “Voices From Okinawa”, written by Jon Shirota. Within the next 5 weeks that it will be playing, I would like to encourage you and your families to make time to attend this production. The play runs about 1hr 15min. with no intermission. It brings to the forefront the problems…especially US military issues in Okinawa. The personal stories portrayed in the play are very real to life dramas of what is happening in Okinawa now, and which our Okinawa community has not been publicly exposed to very much. It shows that although the war has ended more than 60 years ago, the problems of okinawans not being able to voice their problems, and continued suffering due to US military presence still exist and is still affecting Okinawa. There are a few things that don’t jive with Okinawan life, and the transitions between the scenes seem to soften the heavy, emotional stories through its almost comical music and movements, but al in all it is a play with a strong message that all Okinawans should take to heart and think about. For those of you who just came back with us from the tour…there are parts where it will wrench at your hearts since you will understand the situations so clearly.

This play also comes a a good time when news has been covering the Futenma base issues, and also Camp Schwab in Henoko. Also a good timing prior to the Okinawa Governor’s arrival this month. Please let your relatives and friends know about this play and encourage them to go, or take them with you. We all need to grow in our understanding of the problems presented in “Voices”.

Eric/Ukwanshin Kabudan

October 30, 2009

Pearl Harbor sub commander relieved of command

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091030/BREAKING01/91030084/Commander+of+Pearl+Harbor+sub+relieved+of+command

Updated at 9:08 p.m., Friday, October 30, 2009

Commander of Pearl Harbor sub relieved of command

By William Cole

Advertiser Military Writer

The commander of the nuclear attack submarine USS La Jolla based at Pearl Harbor was relieved of his post today “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,” the U.S. Pacific Fleet submarine force said.

Cmdr. Doug Sampson, who has been in command of the Los Angeles-class submarine since October of 2007, was relieved of command by the commodore of Submarine Squadron One, Capt. Stanley Robertson, the Navy said.

“This action was deemed necessary due to the failure of Cmdr. Sampson to meet the high Navy standards necessary to remain in command,” the Pacific Fleet submarine force said in a statement.

Such a removal is usually a career-ender in the Navy.

Lt. Cmdr. David Benham, a spokesman for the Pearl Harbor-based Pacific Fleet submarine force, said he could not go into a lot of specifics on the submarine skipper’s removal. Those issues are under investigation, he said.

“The issues, I would say concern some of the in-port planning, the operations and the administration, which fell short of the high Navy standards,” Benham said.

Benham said Sampson’s “leadership of the crew was inadequate, and that caused the loss of confidence that led to his relief today.”

Benham said the actions did not immediately endanger anyone. The 360-foot-long, 9,600-ton submarine is in the Pearl Harbor shipyard for about 10 months of maintenance.

“Neither the crew nor the public was ever in any danger in relation to the events that led to Cmdr. Sampson’s removal,” Benham said.

Another official said the removal relates to required documentation of inspections and testing.

The Pacific Fleet submarine force said administrative action also “has been taken or is being considered” for other crew members of USS La Jolla, but the number of crew members under scrutiny was not specified.

Sampson will be temporarily assigned to Submarine Squadron One, the Navy said. Cmdr. Erik Burian, who previously held command of the Pearl Harbor-based sub USS Los Angeles, has taken command of USS La Jolla.

Sampson could not be reached for comment.

Benham said the La Jolla, commissioned in 1981, is in the shipyard for what’s known as a “pre-inactivation restricted availability.” The shipyard in January said the La Jolla was expected that month. The repairs were expected to take 10 months.

Benham said the maintenance work preserves a sub’s ability to conduct future operations until it is decommissioned. No date has been set for that decommissioning, he said.

Sampson enlisted in the Navy in 1984, according to his official biography. He graduated from Auburn University, attended Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, and received his commission in November 1989.

Sampson reported to his first submarine, USS Pogy in his hometown of San Diego in June 1991. He was the engineer officer on the submarine USS Florida in 1997, and was executive officer on board USS Pasadena in Pearl Harbor in January 2003.

In October of 2008, La Jolla returned from a six-month western Pacific deployment, visiting Guam, Japan and Singapore.

The submarine, which has a crew of about 140, can be armed with Mark 48 torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles. Pearl Harbor has 17 submarines, with an 18th, the USS Texas, on its way to Hawai’i.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.

October 28, 2009

Ex-soldier guilty of Waikiki rape

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/global/story.asp?s=11402318

UH dorm burglar guilty of additional sex assault

Posted: Oct 28, 2009 11:26 AM

By Minna Sugimoto

HONOLULU (HAWAIINEWSNOW) – A former Schofield Barracks soldier gave up his court fight in a Waikiki rape case Wednesday.

Mark Heath pleaded no contest to burglary and sex assault. Prosecutors say two years ago, he broke into a woman’s Ala Wai Boulevard apartment while she was sleeping and raped her. D-N-A evidence linked him to the crime.

Heath is already convicted of breaking into dorm rooms at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and stealing various items, including women’s underwear. He also held a pair of scissors to a female student’s face and fondled her.

Prosecutors say they’ll seek a 60-year prison term when Heath is sentenced for both cases in January.

October 28, 2009

Explosive shell prompts evacuation of apartments

By Leila Fujimori

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Oct 28, 2009

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/hawaiinews/20091028_Explosive_shell_prompts_evacuation_of_apartments.html

Police evacuated a half-dozen residents of a Kapahulu apartment building yesterday morning after an explosive shell was discovered in a third-floor apartment unit vacated by an 88-year-old former military man.

It turned out to be an empty U.S. military anti-tank round stamped 1953, said Sgt. Thomas Carreiro, Honolulu police bomb squad commander.

The man told police he obtained the 2 1/2 -foot-long, 4-inch shell from a friend in Japan 35 years ago, who said he fished it out of Yokohama Bay, near Tokyo.

“Maybe he was duped by somebody,” Carreiro said, noting the man “feels bad, causing all this ruckus.”

Police got the call at about 11:15 a.m. when the property manager discovered the shell at 3112 Brokaw St. He said he did not know how to dispose of the item that was just left there, so he called police.

Although Carreiro said it appeared to be empty, they evacuated the building and kept the area and street cordoned off as a precaution.

The bomb squad summoned Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal specialists, who arrived from Schofield Barracks about two hours later and removed it from the apartment. Residents were allowed back in shortly after 2 p.m.

Residents said they were not afraid, just inconvenienced, some waiting 2 1/2 hours.

Mina Taniguchi, who lives next door to the unit where the ordnance was found, had come home from shopping with her husband and baby, and said, “They said it was empty, so I’m not scared. I’m just wondering why it’s there.”

October 23, 2009

Navy will test its “Giant Voice” in Wahiawa

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091023/BREAKING01/310230020/+Giant+Voice++system+to+be+tested+in+Wahiawa

Posted at 12:51 a.m., Friday, October 23, 2009

‘Giant Voice’ system to be tested in Wahiawa

Advertiser Staff

The Navy says it will conduct an operational test of its “Giant Voice” mass notification system at its Wahiawa annex today at 1 p.m. The announcement on the public address system will be audible to those who live or work near Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific in Wahiawa.

The short announcement will be preceded with the words “test test test,” followed by a warning tone and then close with “test test test.”

The system provides base-wide siren signals and prerecorded and live voice messages for emergency situations. Routine tests are periodically held.

October 19, 2009

Twisting Arms – Gates tries to shore up military alliances

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=56273

Gates to Press Asia, NATO for More Afghanistan Support

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

HONOLULU, Oct. 19, 2009 – As Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates travels this week to Japan and South Korea before heading to a NATO defense ministers conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, he’s expected to ensure the issue of support for Afghanistan remains solidly on front burner.

In a break from the frequent national defense team sessions President Barack Obama has called in recent weeks as he reevaluates the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, Gates will be on the road this week, shoring up long-standing alliances.

But senior defense officials traveling with him confirm that he’ll also press for more coalition support at every stop along the way.

In Tokyo, the secretary will get his first challenge in that regard as he becomes the first U.S. Cabinet member to meet with the newly installed Japanese Democratic Party government. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced last week that Japan’s naval refueling mission that supports the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan will end in January.

Japan’s Maritime Defense Force has been deploying a supply ship and destroyer to provide fuel and water to U.S. and British naval ships in the Indian Ocean since 2001. The mission will end after the agreement, which has been renewed annually for the past eight years, expires.

“The refueling operation has been of great value to the coalition in support of operations in the Indian Ocean,” a senior defense official traveling with the secretary told reporters. Should Japan go ahead with plans to end this support, he said, the United States “would certainly support their contributions in any other way if they can’t continue the refueling operation.”

Another defense official offered a stronger assessment of U.S. expectations. “Whether it’s refueling or anything else,” he said, “we would hope and expect that Japan makes a significant contribution that’s commensurate with its role in global affairs.”

Gates has no plans to take a specific list of alternatives, and recognizes that nonmilitary contributions can be extremely important, the official said.

In addition to the refueling operation, Japan is one of the biggest donors to the efforts in Afghanistan – pledging $2 billion for the cause since 2001, of which $1.79 billion has been implemented, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said. Those funds have supported reconstruction, humanitarian assistance, governance and security efforts. Japan paid $125 million that covered all Afghan National Police salaries for six months, he added.

Of $500 million Japan pledged at the Paris donor’s conference in June 2008, $300 million supported Afghanistan’s August elections, he said.

Japan also contributes to police training.

“A lot of the very valuable contributions in Afghanistan are on the development side and the training side — not just with the military, but with police and other aspects of civil life,” the official said. “It can cover a wide range of activities.”

Gates is expected to take a similar message to South Korea, encouraging more of the development support it is providing in Afghanistan, including a hospital and vocational training center.

“We would hope that Korea would continue to see it in their interest to provide aid of whatever form is appropriate to Afghanistan as we try and make sure that the development continues there,” the official said.

Gates’ visits will reinforce a message he sent in May when he called on U.S. allies in Asia to do more to support the fight in Afghanistan. The secretary emphasized during an address at the “Shangri La Dialogue” Asia Security Summit in Singapore that although Afghanistan is halfway around the world from Asia, what ultimately happens in Afghanistan will have a profound effect on Asia.

“Failure in a place like Afghanistan would have international reverberations, and undoubtedly, many of them would be felt in this part of the world,” he warned.

Gates’ trip will wrap up later this week in Bratislava, where the issue of committing more NATO troops to ISAF is expected to be front and center when he meets with his NATO counterparts. NATO has made no decision to send additional forces to Afghanistan, although Great Britain announced last week that it will increase its force by 500 troops, to 9,500.

NATO military chiefs called for more troops and resources for Afghanistan’s security forces during the past weekend. However, the chiefs did not say where these additional resources would come from, an alliance spokesman said.

Here in Honolulu, Gates’ first stop during his whirlwind around-the-world trip, he’s expected to note the contributions U.S. Pacific Command has made in Afghanistan during a Pacom change-of-command ceremony today.

Navy Adm. Timothy J. Keating will pass command of the oldest and largest U.S. combatant command to Navy Adm. Robert M. Willard. The command includes 250,000 U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region who support operations not only in their own theater, but also in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Pacom has provided about 30,000 troops and manned five combat-ready carrier strike groups and 44 ships participating in three expeditionary strike groups supporting operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq, defense officials said.