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IN THE MILITARY

Waiakea High adds
JROTC program

Newest reserve officer training
program brings isle total
to 26 schools

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Big Island's Waiakea High School is Hawaii's newest Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps unit.

The three other public schools offering Naval JROTC programs are Campbell, Kalaheo and Radford high schools.

Twenty-six island public and private high schools now offer the JROTC program that "will teach students self discipline, self confidence and leadership -- characteristics that will help them to meet the challenges of life," said U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who announced that Waiakea will become the state's 27th school.

Hawaii's JROTC program, with 2,700 students, is one of the largest in the country.

There are 18 Army JROTC programs in Hawaii with the one at Kamehameha being the largest. The Air Force has units at four schools, the Navy four, and the Marine Corps one.

Sixteen Pacific Army Reservists from the 9th Regional Support Command at Fort Shafter served as war-game controllers and division-level planners during a military exercise in Alaska in early August.

The exercise, Tiger Balm 2000, involved a simulated enemy invasion into the Matanuska-Susitna Valley in Alaska, the evacuation of civilians by U.S. Army's 172nd Brigade and Singapore's 12th Separate Infantry, and the restoration of the country's sovereignty.

"The Singapore forces are a very important ally in the Pacific region and play significantly into several of our contingency operations and plans within the Pacific," said Col. Michael Fuller, 172nd Brigade commander.

"Tiger Balm provides us with the opportunity to establish synchronization between the two militaries so that if we have a conflict, we will be able to work together because we will have a better understanding as to how each other works," said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Weller, 9th RSC participant.

Congress is considering a proposal to pay upperclassmen ROTC candidates larger stipends.

College students now enrolled in ROTC programs earn $200 a month. A proposal in the House would raise the minimum to $250 a month, topping off at $600. The matter is now part of the discussion over the 2001 defense authorization bill.

Moving up:

Schofield Barracks: Col. William Caldwell relieved Brig. Gen. Terry Tucker as assistant 25th Infantry Division commander of operations. Tucker will become deputy commanding general of the Army Center and Fort Knox in Kentucky.

Fort Shafter: Lt. Col. Ronald Light relieved Lt. Col. Wally Walters as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers District's 62nd commander.

Fort Shafter: John Fairbank, long-time Army media relations officer, retired at the end of August after 47 years of service. He enlisted in Army in 1953 and was commissioned two years later. He served as public affairs officer in South Korea and Vietnam. After he retired from the Army in 1978, Fairbank served as civilian spokesman for the Navy before taking his last assignment at Fort Shafter in 1982.