Hawaii Ponoi<\/em>. When the song reached its traditional conclusion and most of the room started to sit, many in attendance carried on through the deeper verses of King David Kalakaua\u2019s national anthem.<\/p>\nBefore the meeting, Jordan offered condolences to the family and friends of her fellow board member, Michael Anderson, who died during a hiking accident the previous week. Anderson\u2019s empty chair set a somber tone, as did the main business of the evening\u2013the Army\u2019s presence in Makua Valley.<\/p>\n
Makua Valley spans more than 4,190 acres and has been the site of military training since World War II. In recent years, Native Hawaiians and environmentalists have been pressing the Army to reduce its impact in Makua, and to halt live-fire training in particular.<\/p>\n
\u201cMakua is a want of the Army, not a need,\u201d said William Aila Jr., a Hawaiian cultural practitioner who is active in the community\u2019s attempts to reduce the Army\u2019s presence in the valley. Aila points out that the Army has not trained in Makua at any point during the past five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the greatest indication that they don\u2019t need Makua,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a need of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others echoed Aila\u2019s concerns, and said that the Army is not properly respecting the area as a sacred part of Hawaiian heritage.<\/p>\n
But Army officials insist they understand the community\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not some big evil organization,\u201d said Col. Matt Margotta, who represented the Army\u2019s 25th Infantry Division. \u201cWe are attempting to better understand the Hawaii community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margotta explained that Makua provides a unique setting which allows the Army to simulate a war zone without taking soldiers stationed on Oahu away from their families for an extended period of time. Margotta also pointed to ways in which the Army\u2019s presence has helped improve the community. He said that the military has spent some $7 million toward repairing roads and $10 million toward protecting Hawaii\u2019s endangered species, 41 of which can be found in Makua Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Army recognizes that we have an impact on the community,\u201d he said, \u201cWe are trying to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n
But many of those in attendance were not satisfied, and voiced concerns over the military turning the area into what they said amounts to a munitions trash heap.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you need to do is go back to Kahoolawe and clean it up!\u201d said Shirley Nahoopii of Waianae. \u201cYou have not fulfilled your promise to clean up there after you were finished with it! Is Makua going to end up the same way?\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerns about the dangers of unexploded ordnances, or UXOs, left over from Army training are widespread in areas surrounding the Makua Valley. That\u2019s why Apple, Inc., is donating more than 300 Apple MacBook computers, each equipped with a unique question-and-answer system, to select public schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe students will be required to answer one question regarding UXOs before signing in,\u201d said Tom Burke of the Hawaii Veteran\u2019s Society, who announced the program at the meeting.<\/p>\n
Despite these efforts, some found the program itself, which features a caricatured version of a Native Hawaiian, to be controversial.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is a native, I think it is rather tasteless,\u201d said Johnnie-Mae Perry, a member of the board.<\/p>\n
The Army has yet to release a date to resume training in Makua. Another meeting with representatives of the 25th Infantry will announced by the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board within 60 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the Honolulu Weekly reported below, the community turned out to protest the Army’s plan to establish an Asia-Pacific Fusion Counter-IED center at Makua.\u00a0\u00a0 Like a pimp, the Army is soliciting other countries to use and abuse Makua.\u00a0 Stars and Stripes reported that in Thailand during “Cobra Gold” joint military exercises, “U.S. Army Pacific officials … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Live-fire over Makua valley”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,3],"tags":[1427,48],"class_list":["post-5956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-oahu","tag-live-fire-training","tag-makua"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5956"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5959,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5956\/revisions\/5959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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