By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Hawaii Air National Guard jet refuelers Maj. Steve
Su'a-Filo, Staff Sgt. Mark A. Sandiong, Lt. Tammi
Harper and Master Sgt. Frank Santos, shown in a
KC-135 refueler, are ready for action
in the Kosovo conflict.
Hawaii’s reservists
wait for the call
Local personnel train daily
By Gregg K. Kakesako
in preparation for duty in
the Balkans and elsewhere
Star-BulletinDespite an initial reprieve, Hawaii Air National Guard aerial refuelers know that the war in the Balkans is just a phone call away.
"My husband knows what I am doing," said 2nd Lt. Tammi Harper, a navigator on a KC-135 jet fuel tanker, "and he really hates it. "It's because he's really worried about my safety."
Harper, 29 and a traditional part-time citizen soldier, said there is no apprehension on her part. "I signed my name on that dotted line and this is what I volunteered to do."
But she hopes her unit -- the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron -- won't be activated until her husband, a Navy P3 Orion flight officer, returns from a six-month deployment on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
Other members of the squadron also realize that although they may have missed President Clinton's initial activation of 2,000 reservists Tuesday, their turn may come up soon.
Clinton wants to call 33,102 reservists to active duty to help in NATO's Kosovo operation.
Under this week's call-up, 26 reserve KC-135 and DC-10 jet tankers from nine states were placed on active duty for six months.
The Hawaii Air Guard unit is nearly at full strength, with 278 pilots, navigators, boom operators and maintenance personnel. About 65 percent of the unit are traditional part-time guard members whose standard enlistment is for six years, and who are only supposed to train one weekend a month and two weeks during the year.
However, nearly a third of the members of the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron already have flown combat aerial refueling missions.
Balkan diversion
They were at an air base in southern France participating in peacekeeping missions over Bosnia when on March 24 they were diverted to the Balkans to refuel fighters and bombers hitting targets in Kosovo.Although unit members cannot discuss the specifics of their missions, Lt. Col. Edwin "Skip" Vincent, 203rd's commander, said the targets in Kosovo were roughly an hour and a half from their base.
Master Sgt. Frank Santos, a boom operator, said once the air war began their routine was "fly, sleep, get something to eat, sleep and fly again.
"The joke was that the only thing we got to see in France was the inside of a hangar," he said.
Air crews were required to rest for 12 hours after completing an eight-hour sortie, said Santos, a former Marine who has been in the Hawaii Air Guard for six years.
Maj. Stephen Su'a-Filo, a KC-135 pilot, said he never dreamed he would participate in an armed conflict "where there might be people shooting at you."
But once he was involved in the Kosovo aerial refueling missions, Su'a-Filo said he was prepared.
"We train every day as if we are going to be called up," said Su'a-Filo, a 1976 Kahuku High School graduate.
Harper, who has been in the Hawaii Air Guard for three and a half years, said she thought she would be "terrified" on her first combat mission.
"But when I got there, it was just what I was trained to do."
Within a few days after the unit returned to Hickam Air Force Base on April 5, Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO commander, was asking for more aircraft.
"We knew when Gen. Clark said he needed more aircraft that we would be affected since we're a tanker unit, and where there are fighters, there have to be tankers," said Su'a-Filo, who piloted one of the first combat Kosovo air refueling missions.
Staff Sgt. Mark Sindiong, a boom operator, said his girlfriend, Julie Ching, understands that he may be called away and that bothers her.
"It's difficult to try to focus on what you are doing here knowing that you could be called up."
However, Sindiong, 31, said the Hawaii National Guard has "a strong support structure" for spouses and families with periodic briefings "to keep the families in the loop."
Still Su'a-Filo, 40, acknowledges that he can't always tell his wife, Jean, everything about his combat missions.
"There was a lot of anxiety on her part when I was there. I couldn't tell her where I was because it was classified. But she knew if there were fighters there, there had to be tankers."
Santos, whose wife Lehuanani belongs to the 203rd as a staff sergeant, said his mother-in-law, who lives on Kauai, would have to take care of their two daughters if the unit was sent overseas.
"My oldest one watches television and understands what was going on when we came back last time," said Santos, "so if we were ever called I would have to explain to her exactly where I would be going."
And for members of the 203rd who spent an average of 70 to 80 days last year away from their families, it is not a matter of when they will be called to the join the fight over Kosovo, but just where they will be for six months.
Ready for action
Unit: 203rd Air Refueling Squadron.
‘Mental shift’ prepares
By Gregg K. Kakesako
reservists for action
Star-BulletinAlthough Hawaii Air National Guard personnel can't say just how close they were to the action when the NATO air war began five weeks ago, they hint that when reports came out of U.S. fighters engaging enemy MiGs, they were in the neighborhood.
"For people in Hawaii, it's hard to think about a war on the other side of the world," said Master Sgt. Frank Santos, who was in the Marine Corps for six years before he joined the Hawaii Air National Guard.
And although reservists may be technically trained, just how ready are they to face live action?
Santos doesn't believe "the shift is that drastic. It's more of a mental shift."
"Our training missions were the same as those in the war zone," said Santos, who handles the boom that fed fuel to NATO bombers and jet fighters. "Except in a war zone, someone may be firing a rocket at you."
Maj. Stephen Su'a-Filo, a KC-135 jet tanker pilot, said: "You listen. You're more attentive."
Su'a-Filo flew one of the first aerial refueling missions after the Kosovo air war began on March 24.
"It (the war) also really struck home," Santos said after the unit, the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron, heard reports of MiG dogfights and kills.
"We knew they were involved with the planes we were refueling," Su'a-Filo said.
From then, the Hawaii aircrews were more cautious, remembering small things like making sure enough parachutes were aboard their jet tankers, and that each flight member had his survival vest on when they took off from their home base in southern France.
As for keeping abreast of the Kosovo crisis, they all agree: You can't beat CNN.
"It's the greatest intel (intelligence)," said Su'a-Filo. "We watched it all the time we were there."
