Hurricanes aren’t just powerful gusts of wind – they can produce dangerous amounts of rain & flooding, too. Learn how to protect your family, home, or business from all the potential effects of hurricanes at www.Ready.gov/hurricanes
Please note that here in Hawai‘i, we need to stock water and supplies for at least 7-10 days. Most government websites recommend 3 days, and that is a reasonable supply if you live on the continental United States. Hawai‘i is dependent on container ships that take 7 days to get to Hawai‘i from Oakland or Los Angeles.
Saffery Shigematsuu Higa, 57, Honolulu, a finishing carpenter and a Hawai‘i Air National Guard veteran, passed away on May 5, 2014. He was born in Honolulu.
He is survived by companion Kimberly N.S. Ardis, brother Larry and sisters Jan Taniguchi, Carolyn Saggers and Gail Perez.
By Colonel Jack Jacobs, U.S. Army (Ret.)
On Thursday VA Secretary Eric Shinseki was grilled by members of Congress about significant and perhaps deadly delays in health care for America’s veterans. Some on Capitol Hill, and some leaders of veterans organizations, have demanded his resignation.
But the problem with the VA is not its boss. It doesn’t matter whether Eric Shinseki stays or goes, or whether he’s done a good job during his five-year tenure in trying to address the VA’s many long-term issues in delivering quality care. The problem is the VA. The medical component of the Department of Veterans Affairs needs to be abolished. We need to shut the doors of the thousands of medical facilities around the country that are failing to serve our veterans.
Read more http://ow.ly/xeaiC
Two easy ways to get your yard or property ready for hurricane season:
– Have a plan for bringing in all outdoor furniture & securing anything else that isn’t tied down, should a storm threaten the area
– Trim the trees and shrubs around your home. High winds can turn branches into projectiles during a storm
Find more safety tips at http://www.ready.gov/hurricanes and share these tips with your Facebook friends!
Please note that here in Hawai‘i, we need to stock water and supplies for at least 7-10 days. Most government websites recommend 3 days, and that is a reasonable supply if you live on the continental United States. Hawai‘i is dependent on container ships that take 7 days to get to Hawai‘i from Oakland or Los Angeles.
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Elbridge Takenobu Yogi, 77, of Kaneohe, a retired senior vice president in the baking industry and a National Guard veteran, passed away on May 1, 2014. He was born in Honolulu. He is survived by wife Sharon; son Darryl; daughter Kathy; sisters Mae Kato, Shirley Ho and Charlene Yogi-Blaha; and two grandchildren. Private service
Did you know: Most hurricane deaths and damages aren’t because of winds – they happen because of flooding. Visit www.floodsmart.gov to find out if you live in a flood-prone area and how flood insurance can lessen the financial impact of a flood.
Please note that here in Hawai‘i, we need to stock water and supplies for at least 7-10 days. Most government websites recommend 3 days, and that is a reasonable supply if you live on the continental United States. Hawai‘i is dependent on container ships that take 7 days to get to Hawai‘i from Oakland or Los Angeles.
“Welcome Home” is a new series that tells the story of Vietnam Veterans, from all branches of the service, in their own words. It is scheduled for release in 2015, the 40th anniversary year of the end of the War. It is a thank you — and a welcome home that is long, long, overdue.
From August of 1964 — when the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave President Lyndon Baines Johnson license to prosecute the Vietnam War using American blood and treasure — until April of 1975, when Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese, some 2.7 million Americans served in Southeast Asia. Fifty-eight thousand of them never returned. Those that did return found themselves in a country very different from the one that sent them off to war. Vietnam veterans came home to a nation that did not wholly comprehend where they had been or why, nor what they had seen and done.
But, there, “in country”, as they say, they found something else: The brotherhood. That was one thing on which they soon learned they could bet their lives: The sacred bond Vietnam Veterans had with each other. It is a bond that never has been, and never will be, broken. So, when they returned home to a nation that was, at best indifferent, and at worst, contemptuous of them, they relied on that bond. Vietnam Veterans adopted the heart-rending custom of greeting each other with a simple, “Welcome Home”. It is a custom they practice to this day.
View the video trailer http://ow.ly/xe0t8
For updates on the series visit their website, www.sleepingdogtv.com Join their new Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/sleepingdogtv Mahalo to several Retiree News readers who emailed this story and the link to the video.
Army and Air Force Exchange Service officials have submitted a formal proposal to defense officials asking for authority to expand exchange online shopping privileges to all honorably-discharged veterans, according to AAFES director Tom Shull.
The proposal was submitted May 14.
Information was not immediately available from defense officials about whether they are considering the proposal, or if there is a timeline for a decision.
Continue reading http://ow.ly/xdYqI
During Hurricane Preparedness Week, prepare your family, home, or business before a disaster strikes.
Learn how you can get prepared to lessen the impact of severe tropical weather by visiting: www.ready.gov/hurricanes
Please note that here in Hawai‘i, we need to stock water and supplies for at least 7-10 days. Most government websites recommend 3 days, and that is a reasonable supply if you live on the continental United States. Hawai‘i is dependent on container ships that take 7 days to get to Hawai‘i from Oakland or Los Angeles.
Fellow Veterans and Family Members,
After 38 years in The Army, I am now honored and privileged to serve as your Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA). VA remains committed to providing the high quality benefits you have earned and deserve.
Allegations of VA employees’ misconduct have surfaced over the last several weeks, beginning with scheduling delays at the Phoenix VA Health Care System. As I testified before Congress on May 15, I take any allegations about patient safety or employee misconduct very seriously. The reports of Veterans’ negative experiences while seeking VA care are of great personal concern to me. I fully agree with President Obama’s statement on May 21, 2014: “If these allegations prove to be true, it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful . . . .”
In response to these allegations at the Phoenix VA Medical Center and a number of other facilities, the VA Office of Inspector General is conducting a comprehensive, independent review.
Continue reading http://ow.ly/xdXTS
Melvin George Ing, 84, of Honolulu, a business owner and Army National Guard veteran, passed away on May 8, 2014. Mr. Ing was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on November 8, 1929 to George and Margaret Ing. Eleanor, his beloved wife of 60 years, passed away last October. After graduating from the University of Hawaii, Mr. Ing joined the Hawaii Army National Guard, and after 32 years of service, retired as a full colonel. He also owned and managed two family businesses – Haiku Gardens Restaurant and Nursery Associates. He was a lifelong golfer, completed five Honolulu Marathons, and enjoyed traveling the world with his wife. Mr. Ing is survived by sons Steven (Lani) Ing and Arnold (Joanne) Ing; daughters Carol (Bruce) Leonard, Joy Lorick, Lianne (Lee) Reich, and Lisa (David) Woolsey; and sister Barbara Miller. Also left to cherish his memory are grandchildren Michael, Rachael, Carli, Terrance, Nicole, Kimberly, Alexa, Allison, Eason, Ian, Ethan, and Kiyomi; as well as an aunt, nieces and nephews, lifelong friends, and devoted caregivers.
This is the first of a series of articles by Stephen Lum entitled My Back Pages. Steve retired from the Hawai‘i Army National Guard and continues to work in the State Department of Defense’s public affairs office. His had worked on annual reports, the pūpūkahi and other documents over the years. His research produced in depth articles about the Hawai‘i National Guard and Guard members.
The Judd Family and the Hawai‘i National Guard by Stephen LumHawai‘i’s seventh governor, Governor Lawrence McCully Judd, has a storied biography that links him to the history of the National Guard and Hawai‘i.
click on photographs to enlarge
He was born in 1887, in Honolulu, the last of nine children of Hawai‘i Supreme Court Chief Justice Albert Francis and Agnes Hall Boyd Judd. Albert named him after his colleague, First Associate Justice Lawrence McCully (appointed by King Kalākaua). His grandfather is Dr. Geritt Parmele Judd, who came to the islands as a missionary physician and later served as an advisor to Kamehameha III. He is also a descendant of Thomas Hastings, who came from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.
Education and career
Judd graduated from Punahou Preparatory School (Geritt was one of the founding fathers of the school for missionaries’ children) in 1905, and attended the University of Pennsylvania. He married Florence Hackett and had four children. After working on the continental United States for a few years, he returned to Hawai‘i and worked at Alexander & Baldwin and Theo H. Davis & Co., Ltd.
His military career began in 1915, when he enlisted in the National Guard of Hawai‘i as a private when World War I began. He career included:
Private (Company B, 1st Battalion, 1st Hawaiian Infantry)
Second lieutenant (battalion quartermaster)
First lieutenant and captain (machine gun company executive officer and commander)
Major (2nd Battalion, 1st Hawaiian Infantry commander)
Lieutenant colonel/aide l de l camp to the Brig. Gen. Samuel I. Johnson, 1st Brigade
Commander/adjutant general, colonel (298th Infantry commander)
Commander-in-chief of the National Guard of Hawai‘i, as the governor of Hawai‘i
Col Judd and his staff, Spring 1926
His government service included Territorial Senator (1920-1928, a year as senate president), governor of Hawai‘i (1929-1934, appointed by President Herbert Hoover) and temporary governor of American Sāmoa (1953, appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower).
Significant events during Judd’s governor tenure were the adjusting of Hawai‘i government expenses due to the 1929 stock market crash; overhaul of the Hansen’s disease colony system of governance in Kalaupapa, Moloka‘i; and commuting sentences of persons convicted in Hawai‘i courts of manslaughter during the Massie Affair. He also served as a trustee for the Palama Settlement and the Liholiho Estate. In 1942, he directed Hawai‘i’s Civil Defense program and was instrumental in the Natatorium World War I Memorial’s construction.
Family roots
His father, Albert served in the King’s Army from 1866-1871, rising to rank of captain. He was a member of the House of Representatives and the House of Nobles. His government service continued as attorney general under King Liholiho; and as associate and chief justice of the Hawaiian Kingdom Supreme Court (serving as chief for 19 years, until his death, in 1900).
His grandfather, Gerrit, came from New York to Hawai‘i in 1827. He resigned from the mission in 1842 to become an advisor and translator to Kamehameha III. His positions included Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Finance and Plenipotentiary to England, France and United States. He also served in the House of Representatives. In addition to founding Punahou in 1841 (known as Oahu College from 1853 to 1934), he started Hawaii’s first medical school. Judd Street, in Nu‘uanu, was named after him.
Judge Lawrence McCully owned about 122 acres makai of Algaroba Street to Kalākaua Avenue. The McCully District and McCully Street are named after him.
Governor George Robert Carter, Lawrence’s Judd family cousin was Hawai‘i’s second governor.
Guard relatives
Hawai‘i Guard members and Punahou alumni who are also descendants of Gerrit Judd include:
Colonel Walter Foulke Judd
Hawai‘i Air National Guard’s Colonel Walter Foulke Judd, is credited with recreating the ceremonial Royal Guard unit, saving the ‘Iolani Barracks and early restoration of ‘Iolani Palace. The 1940 enlistee of the Hawai‘i Army National Guard’s Company K, 299th Infantry (Moloka‘i) served in World War II’s European Theatre as a decorated Army Air Corps navigator.
He was an original member of the new post-World War II Hawai‘i National Air Guard and a prolific writer of Hawaiian history. Known by many as “Papa” Judd, he passed away on November 20, 2000.
Colonel Francis Andrew Imaikalani Bowers, Jr.
Dr. “Miki” Bowers was a former commander of the 29th Infantry Brigade and first commander the 1st Battalion, 487th Field Artillery.
The Hawai‘i Guard activated-Vietnam veteran, worked at his Punahou alma mater for 40 years as a mathematics instructor and department chair. Miki Bowers passed away on January 1, 2011.
Read more on COL Bowers https://retireenews.wordpress.com/2014/04/12/bowers/
Related: Hawaii National Guard: http://dod.hawaii.gov/ Punahou School: http://www.punahou.edu/
