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Isle reservists
Kamimura, Sakagawa
selected for promotion

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Two more Hawaii reservists -- National Guard Brig. Gen. Dennis Kamimura and Col. Glen I. Sakagawa -- have been nominated to move up the ranks.

This follows a Pentagon announcement earlier last week that another local Army reservist -- Col. Stephen Tom -- is in line for a one-star general officer promotion for a job in South Korea.

In the active Army, Col. Jason Kamiya, a 1972 St. Louis School graduate, in June was selected for promotion to one-star general. Kamiya, 45, will join other Hawaii residents -- Brig. Gen. Joseph Peterson and Brig. Gen. Antonio Taguba -- who are general officers in the active Army.

Sakagawa, 52, is currently commander of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 3,400-member 29th Infantry Brigade and has been nominated as its one-star head.

He has asked another Hawaii-born Army general -- four-star Kauai resident Eric Shinseki -- for the honor of pinning on his one star when Shinseki will be in the islands this month to attend the state's salute to the Medal of Honor recipients for the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Kamimura, 52, was the past commander of the 29th Brigade and is now deputy commanding general at Fort Shafter's U.S. Army's Pacific command. That is a two-star billet which was held by Maj. Gen. Eugene Imai, who has retired.

In civilian life, Kamimura heads the city Motor Vehicle Licensing Division, while Sakagawa is an executive with the U.S. Postal Service.

Both Kamimura and Sakagawa are veterans of the Vietnam War. Kamimura was a helicopter pilot and Sakagawa served in the infantry.

Sakagawa enlisted in the Army right after graduating from Maui High School in 1966 and was sent to Vietnam as a member of the 101st Airborne Division.

"I had been accepted to several colleges, but I didn't have the money for college," said Sakagawa who is now senior manager for U.S. Postal Honolulu Cluster which oversees postal operations in Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa and Saipan.

His record as an infantryman won Sakagawa a direct commission as a second lieutenant in the Hawaii Army National Guard after serving in Vietnam. In the Hawaii Army National Guard Sakagawa has commanded a battalion, the Hawaii Military Academy, and the 103rd Troop Command -- the Army Guard's major supply and service organization.

Sakagawa and his wife, Gail, have four children. He graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1983.

Sakagawa said he never expected to become a general officer, adding the promotion was due in part to the help and support of fellow soldiers and "God's help."