Marine killed in motorcycle crash

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091208/BREAKING01/91208015/Marine+dies+in+Kailua+motorcycle+crash

Updated at 9:51 p.m., Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Marine dies in Kailua motorcycle crash

Advertiser Staff

A motorcyclist died early Tuesday in Kailua after he crashed into a telephone pole and then concrete wall.

The incident happened a little past midnight near Oneawa and Manono streets. Police said the man, a Marine from Marine Corps Base Hawaii, was heading north on Oneawa when he lost control of his 2008 Suzuki GSX-R 1000.

Police said speed may have been a factor but it is unknown if drugs or alcohol played a role. The man, 24, was wearing a helmet and there were no other vehicles involved.

City emergency services spokesman Bryan Cheplic said paramedics pronounced the man dead at 12:34 a.m.

Navy abandons repair work on coral reef damaged by the USS Port Royal

The Navy fixed its heavily damaged Aegis missile cruiser, the USS Port Royal, which ran aground near the Honolulu Airport in February but is abandoning repair work on the coral reef damaged by the grounding.

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http://www.starbulletin.com/news/breaking/70222032.html

Navy suspends repair work on coral damaged by warship

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 11:47 a.m. HST, Nov 16, 2009

The Navy has decided against additional coral stabilization and rubble removal operations at the site where the $1 billion cruiser USS Port Royal ran aground in February.

Navy and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources divers suspended operations in June because of high summer surf. Up to that point the Navy had spent $7 million reattaching nearly 5,400 coral colonies and righted eight large boulders. In addition, contractors used a barge-mounted, bucket system to remove 250 cubic yards of rubble created by the grounding.

Because of threatened legal action by the state, the Navy has never said what caused the grounding, although there were reports that the ship’s navigational equipment was broken. The state has said it still plans to file suit against the Navy early next year.

The Navy spent $40 million to repair the cruiser which was in Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard’s dry dock 4 for seven months before returning to the fleet on Sept. 24. The Navy has not said when the cruiser and its crew of 300 sailors will be certified to return to sea duty.

Dry-dock crews from BAE Systems and the shipyard replaced the warship’s sonar dome, reinstalled rudders and completed structural repairs to the ship’s tanks, superstructure and underwater hull. The sonar dome, located under the bow, was the most heavily damaged part of the vessel. In addition, four sections of shafting were replaced, struts that support the propulsion shafts were realigned and the underwater hull was repainted blue.

The $1 billion warship ran aground Feb. 5 in 14 to 22 feet of water about a half-mile from Honolulu Airport. Nine tugboats and ships pulled the ship off the reef on the fourth attempt Feb. 9.

NYT article about Okinawan opposition to U.S. bases

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/world/asia/12okinawa.html?_r=1

Okinawans Grow Impatient With Dashed Hopes on U.S. Base

By MARTIN FACKLER

Published: November 11, 2009

GINOWAN, Japan — Okinawans like Zenji Shimada, who have spent most of their lives under the thudding of helicopters from a busy American air base, are accustomed to disappointment. Decades of complaints about the base here and others on the island have gone largely unheeded, and a painstakingly negotiated plan to move the Marines from populated areas remains years from completion.

 

Many Okinawans oppose the American air base now in the city of Ginowan, as well as plans to move it to Henoko, where ribbons expressed their stance.

This summer was no different. Hopes stirred by the election of a new Democratic Party government were quickly dashed after members of the administration of the incoming prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, backed away from the party’s pre-election promises to move the base off the island.

“We feel like Mr. Hatoyama has been jerking us around,” said Mr. Shimada, 69, a Protestant pastor who joined a lawsuit against the base.

When President Obama visits Tokyo on Friday as part of a weeklong tour of Asia, the base issue is perhaps the most prominent of several he will face as the countries’ long-close relations enter a new period of uncertainty. While Mr. Hatoyama has affirmed that the military alliance with the United States remains the cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy, he has also called for ending Japan’s “overdependence” on Washington and reorienting his nation toward a resurgent Asia.

“Japan-American relations have entered a new stage that people don’t really understand yet,” said Masaaki Gabe, a professor of international relations at Okinawa’s University of the Ryukyus. “Japan feels a lot of uncertainty about the future in Asia, but it also feels like it doesn’t have to follow quite so closely behind the United States.”

As the two nations search for a new balance, the fate of the base, the sprawling United States Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, has taken on heightened significance. Futenma has occupied the center of Ginowan, a city of 92,000, since it was built on land seized in the closing days of World War II.

It was this base, with its busy runway lying adjacent to homes and a university and its flight paths running directly over crowded neighborhoods, that Washington initially agreed to move in 1996 after a public outcry over the rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three American servicemen.

Washington wants to proceed with a 2006 agreement to move the Marines to a less heavily populated part of Okinawa by 2014. But Mr. Hatoyama’s party is now backtracking, saying it may seek to renegotiate the deal. Mr. Hatoyama has postponed making a formal decision until after local Okinawan elections in January.

The airfield still operates in this densely populated city, 13 years after the initial deal, because of bureaucratic foot-dragging and Tokyo’s inability to find another community to take the Marines. Public clamor for the base’s removal surged again after a Marine cargo helicopter crashed in 2004 in a fireball on the neighboring campus of Okinawa International University, injuring three crew members.

Today, the university has turned the crash site into a small shrine by preserving a burned tree trunk and a concrete wall cleaved by the falling helicopter’s propeller.

For many Okinawans, Futenma has become the most visible symbol of an unfair burden placed on the island, home to about two-thirds of the 37,000 shore-based United States military personnel in Japan. On Sunday, 21,000 protesters gathered in Ginowan to demand that Mr. Hatoyama fulfill his party’s earlier promises to move the base off Okinawa.

“Our fight against the injustice of these bases has been going on ever since the Battle of Okinawa” in World War II, said Ginowan’s mayor, Yoichi Iha, one of the protest’s organizers. “The backlash will also be huge if the Democratic government reneges on its promises.”

His sentiments, and those of many here, are written in English across the roof of its city hall, for American aviators to see: “Don’t Fly Over Our City!” Mr. Iha said he was demanding the base’s removal from the island because he did not want to shift his city’s burden onto another Okinawan community.

Indeed, the 2006 deal to move the Marines to a V-shaped airfield to be constructed near the fishing village of Henoko only angered many Okinawans, who see the continued American presence as a symbol of Tokyo’s neglect of the island, which was part of the independent Ryukyu Kingdom before annexation by Japan in the 1870s.

Okinawans said they felt betrayed last month when a Democratic leader, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, seemed to reverse his party’s longstanding promise to move the base off Okinawa, saying such a move would be too time-consuming. Mr. Okada said that instead he wanted to consider moving the Marines to a larger United States Air Force base on Okinawa, a plan that both nations had already rejected.

Anger here also runs high at the Obama administration after Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates’s visit to Tokyo in October to press for the existing deal for a move to Henoko. When Mr. Gates warned that any changes might undo a broader agreement with Washington to move about 8,000 Marines to Guam, he was criticized in the Japanese news media as a bully.

Officially, the White House has said it wants to give the new government time to assess its predecessor’s policies. But there have been concerns in Washington and Tokyo, voiced last week in an editorial by the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest daily newspaper, that what it called Mr. Hatoyama’s indecision was eroding trust between the allies.

Not all Ginowan residents are against the base. Manami Onaga, 40, who helps manage a 1950s-theme diner selling hamburgers and tacos outside Futenma’s main gate, said the Marines brought Ginowan needed jobs and money. Okinawa had Japan’s lowest per capita annual income in 2006, less than half of Tokyo’s $45,000, according to the Cabinet Office.

But more seem to agree with Mr. Shimada, the pastor.

“Obama promised change, and that’s what we want,” Mr. Shimada said. “We want him to recognize the problems that his country’s military is inflicting on us.”

Japan government out of touch with Okinawan concerns about U.S. bases

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/news/20091109p2a00m0na021000c.html

Gov’t out of touch with the real problems Okinawans over U.S. military presence

The charred Javanese bishopwood trees are a pitiful sight, a lasting reminder of the U.S. military helicopter crash on the campus of Okinawa International University on Aug. 13, 2004, just south of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

Noriyoshi Miyagi, 67, who runs a confectionary company near Futenma, was reminded of a similarly nightmarish incident that took place 45 years earlier when he saw black smoke billowing from the American helicopter, when in 1959, a U.S. jet fighter slammed into Miyamori Elementary School in Uruma City (then Ishikawa City), killing 17 people, including 11 of the school’s students. Miyagi witnessed the destruction first hand.

“If all our politicians saw something like that, they would immediately understand the danger of military bases,” he said.

The relocation of Futenma — which currently occupies one-fourth of Okinawa’s Ginowan City and is called “the world’s most dangerous military base,” due to its location by the city center — has remained at a standstill since the 1996 Japan-U.S. agreement of its reversion to Japan. But since the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took over the reins of government in September, it has once again become a top-priority issue.

Like most Okinawa residents, Miyagi thinks that relocation out of Okinawa is the best solution, but more than anything, he is simply tired of living under such risky conditions. Asked what he thinks about relocation of Futenma to an offshore location at Camp Schwab in Nago City, he answered, “I guess it can’t be helped. I worry more that nothing will actually happen.”

Seisuke Tamanaha, 77, who owns land inside Futenma air station that he inherited from his parents, is similarly doubtful. “I had faith … but I really don’t want to talk about politics.” He’s a “military landowner,” whose land was forcibly turned over for use by the U.S. military, for which he receives rent from the Japanese government.

U.S. military troops landed on Okinawa Island in April 1945, and grueling ground fighting ensued between Japanese and U.S. troops. Tamanaha was just 12 years old at the time. Upon returning home from a relocation camp after the war ended, he found that the surrounding area had become an aircraft junkyard, which was eventually absorbed into the air station.

Of the 13 people in his family, only he, along with his mother and grandmother, survived. In protest, he never took one of the well-paid jobs on U.S. military bases, but has mixed feelings about having received rent for the family’s land. He remembers feeling a weight lift from his shoulders 13 years ago when a bilateral agreement was reached stating that Futenma would be returned to Japan.

Still, he has misgivings about the fact that other Okinawans will continue to bear the burden. Naturally, he had had high hopes for the DPJ, which called for the relocation of Futenma out of Okinawa and out of the country during its general election campaign. On Sept. 26, however, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa stated that relocating Futenma out of Okinawa would be “extremely difficult.” A change of course by the government not even a month after the general election has made Tamanaha increasingly distrustful.

At a study session by Ginowan City military landowners on Oct. 31, the venue was less than half filled. “Maybe people are too dumbfounded to attend,” suggested Tamanaha with a sigh. “They probably think nothing’s going to happen for a while anyway.”

Approximately 40 kilometers northeast of Ginowan City, an emerald green ocean glimmers off the coast of Henoko, Nago City. In a tent set up next to the fishing port, a sit-in by residents protesting Futenma’s relocation has been going on for more than five years. Meanwhile, 72-year-old Shigemori Shimabukuro, who sees parallels between the Futenma relocation and the establishment of Camp Schwab some 50 years ago, is hopeful that relocation of the air station to the area will help his son find good work. Another man, a construction worker in the area, said with a wry grin, “It would help if the base came here, but we no longer live in an age where the construction industry influences politics.”

On the heels of the statement by Defense Minister Kitazawa, on Oct. 23, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada announced his desire to revive the option of shifting Futenma to Kadena Air Base. “They’re repeating the same discussions that took place over a decade ago,” Shimbakuro muttered. “Considering the number of aircraft at Kadena, even a kid can tell that it’s impossible to incorporate Futenma into Kadena …”

In addition to the various views and interests of local residents, the relocation has given rise to discord within the new government. Ahead of President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Japan, on Nov. 5, Foreign Minister Okada notified U.S. officials that the Japanese government was postponing its decision on Futenma.

“I will make the final decision (about the Futenma relocation),” Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama declared last month, to which Tamanaha remarks: “It’s always people who don’t know Okinawa who are making the decisions.” (By Toru Watanabe, Tokyo Regional News Department)

Navy SEAL dies in skydiving accident

KGMB 9 reported that Navy SEAL, Kenneth Richard Owen died in a skydiving accident in Mokuleia today. 

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http://www.khon2.com/content/news/developingstories/story/Skydiver-Killed-After-Parachutes-Fail-to-Open/dwushNJH50KI03Y_KW_f9A.cspx

Skydiver Killed After Parachutes Fail to Open

Reported by: Brianne Randle

Email: brandle@khon2.com

Last Update: 4:46 pm

A 27-year-old off duty Navy seal was killed this afternoon while sky diving at Dillingham Airfield.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, both of the man’s main and reserve parachutes failed to open.

Friends have identified the skydiver as Kenneth Owens.

He was on his third jump of the day when his parachute malfunctioned.

Around 12:30 p.m., Owens was jumping with three other people from about 13.000 feet.

Witnesses saw him struggling with the chute just before he crashed into a pond near the airfield.

He was pulled from the water and taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“Parachute was unopened and dangling below, spiraling thought for sure it was someone attached to it,” explained witness, Jill Buss.

“He did have good knowledge about skydiving, he packed his own chute and he was certified to jump by himself,” said Frank Hinshaw, president of Skydive Hawaii.

Friends at Skydive Hawaii say Owens was a sport jumper and had about 88 jumps under his belt prior to this jump.

The FAA was on scene investigating the fatal accident.

Skydive Hawaii has canceled all their operations for the day.

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http://www.starbulletin.com/news/breaking/64052052.html

Sky diver dies after his parachute malfunctions

By Star-Bulletin staff

POSTED: 02:17 p.m. HST, Oct 12, 2009

A skydiver died after his parachute malfunctioned during a jump from an airplane over the North shore about noon today, according to city Emergency Services Department spokesman Bryan Cheplic.

Cheplic said the man landed in Dillingham Ranch.

Cheplic said the man was taken to Wahiawa General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The man is a Navy diver in his mid-to late 20s, according to Fire Capt. Earle Kealoha.

Navy Man Killed in Head-on Collision

http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/21897/40/

Navy Man Killed in Head-on Collision

Written by Tina Chau – tchau@kgmb9.com

October 11, 2009 09:19 PM

The 29-year-old navy man was making a turn on Kaukonahua Road, headed toward Waialua when he crossed over onto oncoming traffic, colliding with a rental car carrying four European visitors.

They are okay, but the rider, who was wearing a helmet, was killed.

“It’s apparent that [there was] some speed on the part of the motorcyclist,” said HPD traffic investigator Lt. Darren Izumo, “we don’t suspect any on the part of the vehicle.”

The victim was riding with a group of motorcyclists from the Noxcuse Jus Ride bike club. They had been out on a typical Sunday ride when their friend went down.

“What I was told was he was at the back of the pack, either trying to catch up or was riding slow and then apparently lost control and crossed the center line,” said Lt. Izumo.

The curvy scenic stretch of road is notorious for the number of lives it claims. A memorial still remains for someone killed nearly two years ago, just a couple hundred feet from where the motorcyclist was killed.

“Speed limit is 25,” said Lt. Izumo, “and if you ride at 25 or thereabouts, it’s a safe roadway. It’s a good drive, very scenic. But any time you push that, you’re pushing the limits of surface of the roadway and what engineers designed it for.”

This is the 42nd traffic fatality this year compared to last.

Military Police Officer Arrested In Connection With Critical Crash

original

Military Police Officer Arrested In Connection With Critical Crash

Reported by: Olena Heu
Email: oheu@khon2.com

Last Update: 9/26 7:13 pm

A Schofield soldier is in critical condition tonight after the SUV he was riding in crashed into a utility pole, it happened early Saturday morning on Kamehameha Highway near Whitmore Avenue.

Fire crews spent half an hour removing the victim from the SUV, meanwhile police say the driver, who is a military police, officer fell asleep at the wheel…he was later arrested for DUI and negligent injury.

Saturday drivers caught an early morning glimpse of what can happen if you drink and drive.

“This morning at about 530am an SUV south bound on Kamehameha Highway veered off the roadway into a utility pole,” Lt. Darren Izumo said.

The silver SUV with North Carolina plates slammed into the pole. The passenger side was crushed…forcing Honolulu police to close a portion of the roadway contra-flowing traffic into one lane.

According to fire department officials crews worked for about thirty minutes to remove the passenger from the vehicle, witnesses say the passenger’s seat had been pushed to the rear of the car.

“There were two occupants in there, the passenger was taken to Wahiawa General hospital in critical condition,” Lt. Izumo said.

The passenger was later taken to The Queens Medical Center for treatment…with life threatening injuries.

According to police he is a 24 year-old Schofield soldier.

“And the driver was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of an intoxicant,” Lt. Izumo said.

Police say the 26 year-old driver Joseph Florez-Gonzalez apparently fell asleep at the wheel when he crashed. He was arrested for driving under the influence of an intoxicant and negligent injury.

“We do have evidence that he was apparently still on the accelerator after the impact,” Lt. Izumo said.

According to police Florez-Gonzalez is a military police officer at Schofield Barracks. He lives off base in Pupukea and neighbors say he moved in just a few months ago.

Forez-Gonzalez remains at HPD’s main cellblock awaiting charges. Calls to Schofield Barracks for comment were not returned.

Source: http://www.khon2.com/news/local/story/Military-Police-Officer-Arrested-In-Connection/DxWFq1rQH0-ovhq2U_q7FA.cspx

Two Military Men Crash in Wahiawa, one injured

Man is in critical condition after crash near Whitmore Village

By Star-Bulletin staff

POSTED: 02:52 p.m. HST, Sep 26, 2009

A passenger in a sports utility vehicle was seriously injured early this morning when the vehicle struck a utility pole beside Kamehameha Highway near Whitmore Village.

A Honolulu Fire Department crew worked for about 30 minutes with extrication tools to remove the 24-year-old man who was pinned in the Cadillac Escalade. He was listed in critical condition at Queen’s Medical Center.

Police said the 26-year-old driver of the Wahiawa-bound vehicle fell asleep and the vehicle drifted off the road in the 5:30 a.m. accident near the intersection with Kaukonahua Road.

The driver was treated for minor injuries at Wahiawa General Hospital and arrrested on charges of negligent injury and operating a vehicle under the influence.

Police said the roadway was wet and that alcohol was a factor in the accident. Both men wore seatbelts and it was not known if speed was involved.

Traffic investigators said the men were both in the military.

Source: http://www.starbulletin.com/news/breaking/61960777.html

Navy wraps up $40 million in repairs to Port Royal

Navy wraps up $40 million in repairs to Port Royal

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090924/BREAKING01/90924066/Navy+wraps+up++40+million+in+repairs+to+Port+Royal

Updated at 5:05 p.m., Thursday, September 24, 2009

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Workers at the Pearl Harbor shipyard undocked the cruiser Port Royal today as the Navy wraps up nearly $40 million in repairs – a milestone in the warship’s return to service after an embarrassing grounding near Honolulu International Airport’s Reef Runway in February.

Combined teams of BAE Systems and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard engineers and technicians worked alongside Port Royal sailors on the replacement of the 567-foot ship’s bow-mounted sonar dome; refurbishment of the shafting, running gear and propellers; painting of the underwater hull; and on structural repairs to the ship’s tanks, and cracks in the superstructure, the Navy said.

The guided missile cruiser ran aground on coral and sand in 14 to 22 feet of shoal water a half-mile off Honolulu airport’s reef runway on the night of Feb. 5. It was stuck for four days and returned to drydock on Feb. 19.

The nearly $40 million in repairs followed $18 million in shipyard refurbishment immediately prior to the grounding. The ship was on its first day of sea trials when the accident occurred.

Repair work will continue pierside, the Navy said. Additionally the ship’s crew will conduct several weeks of “extensive pierside and underway testing to ensure all systems are operational,” officials said.

A misinterpreted navigation system, a sleep-deprived skipper, faulty equipment and an inexperienced bridge team led to the grounding of the Port Royal, according to a Navy Safety Investigation Board report.

Capt. John Carroll, the ship’s skipper, had only 4 1/2 hours of sleep in 24 hours, and 15 hours of sleep over three days as he pushed to get the warship under way after shipyard repairs, the report states.

He was at sea in command for the first time in nearly five years.

The 9,600-ton cruiser’s fathometer, which measures water depth, was broken, and both radar repeaters, or monitors, on the bridge were out of commission.

A shift in the ship’s navigation system led to erroneous information on the ship’s position. The switch from a Global Positioning System to a gyroscope caused a 1.5-mile discrepancy in the ship’s position and set off alarm bells that were continuously disregarded, according to the safety board.

During the transfer of personnel back to shore that night using a small boat, the operations officer took a binocular bearing to the harbor landing from the boat deck and noted a discrepancy.

He tried unsuccessfully to radio others and then headed back to the bridge, where he immediately realized the cruiser was in the wrong spot.

The safety board report states that at 8:03 p.m., the Pearl Harbor ship was “soft aground” with the bow’s sonar dome on the reef a half-mile south of the reef runway.

Waves forced the ship firmly onto the reef as the crew tried to free it. “Backing bell” and “twist” maneuvers using one screw, or propeller, failed.

The board found many equipment malfunctions and human errors – but said there were enough working sensors and visual cues to prevent the grounding.

“Bridge watch team, navigation, and (Combat Information Center) team did not work together to assess situation and keep the ship from standing into danger,” the report stated.

The report said the ship unknowingly ended up shifting two miles to the east.

Carroll was relieved of his command soon after the grounding. He appeared at a Navy hearing on the grounding and was given “nonjudicial punishment for dereliction of duty and improper hazarding of a vessel,” the Navy said in June.

Along with Carroll, executive officer Cmdr. Steve Okun appeared at the hearing and was given nonjudicial punishment for dereliction of duty, the Navy said.

Two officers and an enlisted sailor appeared at a separate hearing and also were given nonjudicial punishment for dereliction of duty and improper hazarding of a vessel, the Navy said. Their names were not released.

The Navy, in coordination with the state, has spent more than $7 million stabilizing the reef at the grounding site by reattaching thousands of coral colonies and removing 250 cubic yards of rubble.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.

1,000 gallons of sewage spills at military base

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

1,000 gallons of sewage spills at military base

Advertiser Staff

A clogged drainage line is being blamed for causing about 1,000 gallons of wastewater to spill at the Aliamanu Military Reservation Sunday.

The spill is believed to have started Sunday evening because of excessive backflow from a clogged drainage, the Army said. The spill was contained in the military reservation’s drainage canal and did not reach the nearby Salt Lake neighborhood, the Army said.

The line was cleared and Army work crews today were disinfecting the surface areas that were exposed to the wastewater. The cleanup was expected to be completed yesterday.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090826/BREAKING01/308260003/1+000+gallons+of+sewage+spills+at+military+base