KEN SAKAMOTO / KSAKAMOTO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Employers view their workers, who are members of the
Army Reserve, at their annual training at Schofield Barracks.

Reserves easy
on employers

Although it did not use to be
this way, bosses seem fine
with Army Reserve training

---

By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

All Hawaii's Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers used to be activated for training each July and August, Ken Hong recalls.

That was a problem for employers because all of these citizen-soldiers would have to take off at the same time, said Hong, vice president of the Oahu Transit Services, which runs TheBus.

"Now, because the training is spread throughout the year, it is not as bad," said Hong, who has at least a dozen Pacific Army reservists working for the city's bus service. Hong knows the pressures these citizen-soldiers face, since he was a member of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade from 1966 to 1971. Although he was a member of the brigade when it was called to federal duty in 1968, Hong wasn't part of the contingent that ended up fighting in Vietnam.

Hong was among the two dozen employers who spent a day at Schofield Barracks last week getting a firsthand look at what their workers, who belong to the 100th Battalion/442nd Infantry, do when they don their camouflage battle dress fatigues for two weeks each year.

They went to numerous briefings, watched as the soldiers fired an array of weapons and sampled the Army's latest culinary selections, like teriyaki beef, found in the military's field rations: meals ready to eat.

Luther Williams, supervisor for United Parcel Service's airport service center, has four Army reservists working for him as drivers. He, too, acknowledges that "in years past, reservists going on active duty for summer training all at the same time did cause problems.

"Not anymore," said Williams, a former Marine. "Employees now bring in their schedules at the beginning of the year, and I adjust the schedules of the drivers working in these training periods along with vacation requests."

At one time these employers also would have been given the opportunity to climb into a foxhole, strap on a helmet and fire a few rounds at paper targets.

That all changed after the Feb. 9 collision when the nuclear attack submarine USS Greeneville, with three civilians at key watch stations, surfaced into the hull of the Japanese training fishing vessel Ehime Maru near Diamond Head. Nine people were never found after the collision. Although the Navy said the civilians were under close supervision and not a cause of the accident, the Pentagon decided that such practices no longer would be allowed.

The employers were part of an annual "BossLift" program, sponsored by the Hawaii Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, which takes employers and local government leaders to military training sites.

Lt. Col. Howard Sugai, Army Reserve spokesman, said "soldiers nominate their bosses so they get to see what they do when they leave their offices."

In the past the employers have visited island Marine Corps reservists training in San Diego and Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island, and Hawaii Army National Guard troops doing their summer stints at Fort Wainwright in Alaska.

This summer, more than 500 Pacific Army reservists, as well as troops from the Hawaii Army National Guard, have left their civilian jobs and are at Schofield Barracks to hone their soldiering skills. The Army Reserve's 100th Battalion/442nd Infantry still carries the colors of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, considered the Army's most decorated unit during World War II.

Other Hawaii Army National Guard units trained earlier this year in Louisiana, Germany, Washington, Italy, Japan and Honduras.

Army Reserve Master Sgt. Herman Nunies, whose father was a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II, said he has always had "full support from OTS as long as I did my work."

Nunies is one of four bus drivers employed by Oahu Transit Services full time who are members of the 100th Battalion/442nd.

Army Specialist Joby Lee, 31, said he joined the Army Reserve in 1987 after graduating from Pearl City High School and has never had any problem with Oahu Transit Services, where he is a bus driver. He chose the 100th Battalion because his uncle, Toshi Nakamura, was one of the original members of the 100th Battalion, which won accolades on the battlefields of Italy and France in World War II.

Nunies, 49, also a bus driver, said his bosses "gave me what I needed and time off when necessary. It was never a problem."

Nunies has been a member of the Army Reserve since he left active duty 28 years ago, and a bus driver almost as long.