Team 808 is a group of Hawaii Army and Air National Guard members assigned to the National Guard Bureau and other locations in the Washington DC area. CMSgt Raquel Ramos, retired and now a contractor at the Air National Guard Readiness Center, emailed the following.
I wanted to share with you and the retiree population, Major James Wornall’s promotion to Lt Col on 15 July 2016. The ceremony took place at Sheppard Hall, Second Floor Atrium, Air National Guard Readiness Center, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Lt Col Wornall is the Chief of Complaints Resolution, Office of the IG, Air National Guard.
Promotion celebration was held at the Granite City Food and Brewery, National Harbor.
Congratulations to James on his promotion!
click on photographs to enlarge
Thanks to Chief Ramos for emailing the photographs.
Learn tips for when it’s best to use a credit card vs. a debit card.
Women Veterans! VA has a new, online, one-to-one chat just for you.
The new service enables women Veterans to go online and anonymously chat via real-time text with a trained representative. All the representatives at the Women Veterans Call Center are women, and many are Veterans themselves.
The new feature provides women Veterans with another avenue to ask general questions about benefits, eligibility and services specifically for women Veterans.
United States Representative K. Mark Takai passed away this morning. Takai represented Hawaii’s 1st District in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th Congress. In Congress Takai served as the Ranking Member of the Committee on Small Business’s Subcommittee on Contracting and the Workforce in addition to being a member of the House Committee on Armed Services.
Prior to his Congressional election, he spent 20 years serving in the Hawaii State House of Representatives.
Representative Takai served with the Hawaii Army National Guard for many years.
Rest in Peace
From the Images of Old Hawaii website
click on photograph to enlarge
“Navy officials said they received a garbled radio message early today, purported to have been sent by Amelia Earhart, which indicated her plane was sinking.” The signal was picked up by radiomen at the US Naval Radio Station in Wailupe, O‘ahu. The Wailupe station was completed early in 1921. It was a rectangular, one story building on pilings out over the water to provide more land space for the proposed officer’s quarters, two duplex quarters and the single men’s barracks.
After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy realized that the station at Wailupe on the seacoast was very vulnerable to attack. So, on the morning of December 10, 1941, the District Communication Officer decided to have all radio equipment at Wailupe moved to Wahiawa. But, the Coast Guard established a Training Station in early spring 1942 at the former Naval Radio Station at Wailupe.
Later, in 1958, the receiver site and administrative spaces were moved to Wahiawa.
Drinking moderate amounts of nonalcoholic red wine — but not its intoxicating equivalent — lowered blood pressure in men with a high cardiovascular risk, a randomized, crossover study showed.
Just four weeks of drinking the nonalcoholic wine caused a drop in blood pressure, according to Ramon Estruch, PhD, of the University of Barcelona in Spain, and colleagues.
Getting older should be about relaxing and taking it easy, right? Not exactly. Exercise is a necessary part of healthy aging.
You will benefit from just about any type of exercise as you age, as long as you’re not at risk of injury. Low-impact exercises are often the best choice, especially when coupled with weight-bearing exercises.
Here are some options to keep you fit, flexible, and feeling energized. Choose at least one exercise from each group:
BG Keith Tamashiro, Commander of the Hawai‘i Army National Guard, hosted a ceremony honoring three long serving judge advocate general (JAG) officers.
General Tamashiro presented the recently retired JAGs Winston Ling and Gerald Takase with Legion of Merit medals for their exceptional work over their years of service. Continuing, the general presented the JAGs with presidential and gubernatorial letters of congratulations on their retirement. Finally, Congressman K. Mark Takai sent American flags flown over the United States Capitol in Washington for presentation during the ceremony.
The ceremony then moved to the pinning ceremony for David Lopina. There was a pinning ceremony for him earlier in Ohio before family and friends, many who would not have traveled to Hawaii for the event.
General Tamashiro spoke about the new colonel for several minutes before the actual ceremony. MG Arthur “Joe” Logan and Maj Gen (Ret) Darryll Wong did the pinning. Colonel Lopina filled his speech with “thank you’s” and some funny comments.
It was a great day for these JAGs.
Special thanks for MAJ Jeffrey Hickman, who served as the narrator and all those involved with planing this ceremony. Stephen Lum took the following photographs.
In addition to the emotional toll, dying can take a heavy financial toll on the living. The median cost of a funeral runs about $8,500, according to the latest figures from the National Funeral Directors Association, including embalming, viewing, a hearse, a metal casket, a vault and some other related services. The price tag, 29.3% higher than it was a decade earlier, could come as a shock to grieving heirs and take a bite out of your estate.
There are two important points to keep in mind about the $8,500 figure. First, it doesn’t take into account some common cemetery expenses such as a burial site, marker, paid obituary and flowers. Second, it’s the median, or middle, price; some funerals can cost upward of $25,000.
Thanks to Fred Hyun for sharing this article.
Beer is loved by many (including me) and it’s difficult to imagine doing anything with it other than drinking it. However, as well as its surprising health benefits, beer has a number of other useful purposes you can put into action around the house and garden. And best of all, most of them can be done using the leftovers and dregs from the bottom of bottles and cans, so you don’t have to sacrifice your precious drinking nectar!
Here are 16 clever and surprising uses for beer for you to try…
Your feet are amazing diagnostic tools that your doctor can use as clues potentially pointing to a whole host of health problems.
But you don’t need to be a doctor to understand what your feet are saying about your health — you just need to know what warning signs to look for.
If you notice any of the following telltale signs or symptoms in your feet, you may want consult your doctor:
John Ramel Siador, 83, of Honolulu, a groundskeeper for the city Department of Parks and Recreation and a Hawaii National Guard veteran, died on June 26, 2016. He was born in Honolulu.
He is survived by daughter Pulani Rezentes, brother Abraham and sister Christina Lacara.
Visitation: 9 a.m. July 23 at Diamond Head Mortuary. Services: 10 a.m. Burial: 1 p.m. at Valley of the Temples. Condolences: http://www.diamondheadmortuary.net
From the Kiplinger Magazine website
Whether your Social Security benefits are taxed depends on your “provisional income.” Your provisional income is your adjusted gross income, not counting Social Security benefits, plus nontaxable interest and half of your Social Security benefits.
If it’s below $25,000 and you file taxes as single or head of household, or less than $32,000 if you file a joint return, you won’t owe taxes on your benefits. If your provisional income is between $25,000 and $34,000 if you’re single, or between $32,000 and $44,000 if you file jointly, up to 50% of your benefits may be taxable. If your provisional income is more than $34,000 if single or more than $44,000 if married filing jointly, up to 85% of your Social Security benefits may be taxable.
For more information about the tax rules for Social Security benefits, see Taxes on Social Security Can Be a Costly Retirement Surprise.
A few strategies can help you keep your income below the cutoffs and reduce the portion of your benefits that is taxable.
Thanks to Irvin Yoshino emailed more information about smoke alarms after last week’s post.
I glad Retiree News posted the smoke alarm article. I’ve been volunteering with the American Red Cross installing smoke alarms for senior citizens, it’s great program and it does not cost anything.
AMR volunteers will install up to three alarms in your home, test existing alarms, change batteries on existing smoke alarms if required and give the seniors a great diagram to diagram escape routes in case of a fire. I attached a flyer that explains the program and who to contact to schedule an installation, you can post this flyer.
What is considered a senior, good question, just call 739-8111.
