Anthony Siangco, 51, of Kāne‘ohe, a city groundskeeper at Ala Moana Beach Park and an Army National Guard veteran, passed away on January 7, 2015. He was born in Honolulu.
He is survived by wife Tracey; son Jeremy J.K. Brown; brothers Patrick, Pascasio Jr., Erwin, Ernest and Frederick; and sisters Marilyn, Maryann, Theresa and Katharine.
Visitation: 10 a.m. Saturday at Hawaiian Memorial Park Mortuary. Services: 11 a.m. No flowers.
Online condolences: www.hawaiianmemorialparkmortuary.com
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Kalaeloa, Hawaii- Governor David Y. Ige presided over a “Transfer of Authority” ceremony in which outgoing state adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Darryll Wong, formally relinquished his authority to incoming state adjutant general, Brig. Gen. Arthur “Joe” Logan, in front of the 29th Infantry Brigade Readiness Center at Kalaeloa.
Based on an independent analysis by 24/7 Wall St., which incorporated a range of income, health, labor, and environmental indicators, Utah is the best state in which to grow old, while Mississippi is the worst. 24/7 Wall St. Jan. 26.
The Pentagon report to Congress on Space-A travel says the program is primarily for the active components and it’s going to stay that way. It appears the Guard will be screwed by the Pentagon policy makers.
Members of the National Guard and Reserve, Guard and Reserve retirees (including those under age 60) and their immediate families are all now supposed to be eligible for worldwide space-available travel.
This is what Congress intended when it passed the fiscal 2013 National Defense Authorization Act in December 2012.
That it’s not happened—and may never happen—is a product of an 11th-hour provision inserted in the legislation by the Pentagon’s friends on the defense-committee staffs.
Unfortunately, this happens sometimes in the rush to complete work on the annual defense-policy bill. Staffers make tweaks behind closed doors that alter the intent of elected representatives.
In this case, Congress wanted Guard and Reserve members, all retirees and their families to be able to travel anywhere in the world for free in unused seats on military aircraft. It was meant to recognize reserve-component contributions since the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The last-minute language, however, left final decisions to the Defense Department, which adamantly opposed any expansion of the program.
Nevertheless, we had been led to believe the Pentagon understood and would abide by clear congressional intent. We now know this will not be the case.
A 16-page space-A report DoD sent to Congress late last year embraces the status quo. It indicates the Pentagon will add “no new passenger categories.” This means the program will not be expanded to Guard and Reserve family members.
And we suspect that when final regulations are issued later this year there will be no expansion of the benefit to serving Guard members, Reservists and “gray-area” retirees beyond the current domestic travel.
The Pentagon argues that adding new categories of passengers would increase competition for seats. Yet tens of thousands of seats go unused every year, according to DoD’s own figures.
This is also puzzling since the space-A system is self-regulating, first, by the availability of seats and then with its list of prioritized categories that would automatically exclude Guard and Reserve dependents if seats were not available.
The report specifically mentions the program “manifests” passengers to their final destination, which prevents a passenger from being bumped at an en-route stop by someone with a higher priority. This could keep a Guard spouse on an aircraft, for example, while an active-component member has to wait for another flight.
The Pentagon’s draconian solution here is to exclude the Guard dependents on all flights. A more reasonable answer would be to limit all low-priority travelers to nonstop flights.
The Guard was supposed to have the full space “A” benefit a year ago. When that didn’t happen and members on Congress began to hear from some of you, 17 senators wrote to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel seeking an update.
They also said in their April 1, 2014, letter that they expected him to ensure “the Space-A benefit is equally applied across-the-board to all those who served, along with their families and survivors.”
The October report, which Hagel signed, says the Space-A program is primarily for the active components and it’s going to stay that way.
This decision reflects a lack of empathy for the Guard family that copes with deployments without the costly 24/7 support system that is a feature on every active-component installation. Pentagon officials have until October to finalize how the program will operate. This gives them time to do the right thing.
Quite honestly, it’s the least they could do.
This article comes from the January 2015 issue of National Guard magazine. The author, Colonel Pete Duffy (Ret.), is the NGAUS legislative director. He can be contacted at pete.duffy@ngaus.org.
The movie description is a lead-in to important information about Alzheimer’s disease.
Midway through the film “Still Alice,” which tracks the growing grip of Alzheimer’s on a 50-something Columbia University professor, that professor, played by Julianne Moore, stands at a lectern to address an Alzheimer’s conference. She is holding a yellow highlighter and a copy of her speech.
She proceeds to talk about her struggles with the disease and how she never knows what will vanish from her memory and when. It’s a lucid, affecting talk, and the viewer would be hard pressed to know anything was wrong with her, if not for the highlighter. She uses it to track her every word so she doesn’t read the same sentence over and over again.
For anyone who has ever watched a family member disappear into Alzheimer’s, Ms. Moore’s performance is gripping, particularly as her tricks to stall her decline inevitably fail and the later stages of the disease consume her.
Paul H. Morikawa, 71, of Mililani, proprietor of PHM Construction, former business manager for Iron Workers Union Local 625 and a Hawai‘i Air National Guard veteran, passed away on December 6, 2014. He was born in Wailuku.
He is survived by wife Elsie, daughters Debra McMillan and Carrie Hata, brother Wilbert and five grandchildren.
Private services.
The highway death toll has been plunging rapidly in recent years, and safety experts are crediting a number of factors, including improved roadways and a crackdown on drunk driving. But a new study puts the spotlight on vehicle design and improved technology for both preventing crashes and keeping motorists alive when they do occur.
A record total of nine models sold during the 2011 model-year have had a death rate of zero, meaning no driver was killed in a crash involving those vehicles during the period studied by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety. IIHS released a report on the findings last week.
You can register to receive an email every time there is a new post. In the “Follow Blog via Email” section and press “Follow”. On the next screen, enter your email address and press ENTER. Shortly, you will receive a confirmation email to your address from WordPress.com. You acknowledge the email and you are a registered reader.
After you compete this short registration process, you get a notification email every time there is a new posting. The email has a quick teaser of the posting, along with tags that indicate how the posting relates to special topics/areas.
Thanks to these Retiree News readers who registered to “Follow Blog via Email”: Dane Minami, Mike Sato, Adele & Walton Auyong
Thanks for the following new registered readers whose email address did not include a recognizable name: ec5164, bisley2000
There were two interesting quotes in the Verbatim section of the January 2015 issue of Air Force Magazine.
Buck’s Last Blast
“I hope sometime next year a compromise can come to this floor that will end sequestration. … Remember the great sacrifice our troops are making around the world. … They take those risks, they make those sacrifices, because of you. They do it for you. For their families, for their flag. For our freedom.
And how we have repaid them? With equipment that is falling apart, By laying them off while they’re off in war zone.. By docking their pay and their medical benefits. By throwing them out of the service and onto a broken economy.
They never failed us. Not once.
So shame on us, if we’re unwilling to pay back the debt we owe them. Shame on all of us, from the White House on down.”
– Representative Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-California, Chairman of the House Armed Forces Committee, farewell address to the House, December 4, 2014.
Party Line
“I had them tear it out while I was standing there. I told the commanders, “if you get a call from the White House, you tell them to go to hell and call me.” … When a President want highly centralized control in the White house, at the degree of micromanagement that I’m describing. That’s not bureaucratic; that’s political.”
– Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, referring to his discovery of a direct telephone line from a military headquarters in Afghanistan to the White House, Associated Press dispatch, November 29, 2014.
There were no planes, a population of less than 100,000 people and only a few carriages. Unlike today, traffic was unheard of. To get around the mountainous rock known as O‘ahu, most people had to hoof it on foot.
The US Air Force recently announced a Boeing 747-8 would soon replace the current Air Force One — but from FDR to Obama, U.S. presidents have long flown in style.
The NGAUS conference returns to Tennessee for the fourth time. It was previously held in the Music City in 1934, 1986 and 2009. Once again, it will take place at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center with “everything under one roof.”
The Hawaii Wing of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is in need of an individual with an A&P Certificate to assist with the management of our 10 aircraft. All the planes are either Cessna 172 or 182, with several of the 182’s having a glass cockpit. This is a volunteer position.
Currently, the CAP Wing has one individual serving but there should be at least two members managing the aircraft fleet.
Anyone interested should contact Caz Ross, the Vice Commander of the Hawaii Wing by email cazzbear@prodigy.net
Carswell Ross was a Traditional Guard member who served with the Hawaii Air National Guard for many years, retiring as a chief master sergeant. In civilian life, he work in the Office of Veterans Service advocating for veterans. He volunteered with the Civil Air Patrol for over 20 years and continues his service today.
