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IN THE MILITARY

UH basketball star
Itoman joins brother
in air guard

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Iolani School and University of Hawaii basketball star B.J. Itoman is shucking the hoops for a pair of wings.

She has signed with the Hawaii Air National Guard to become a C-130 cargo transport pilot and this month will enter the guard's officer candidate school at Knoxville, Tenn. Upon graduation and the awarding of her second lieutenant bars, she will report to Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida for pilot training.

Her brother, 1st Lt. Ryan Itoman, is credited for talking his sister into flying. Ryan flies F-15 jets with the Hawaii Air National Guard's 199th Fighter Squadron.

Hawaii Air Guard officials believe the Itomans are the first brother-sister pilot team in the entire Air National Guard.

Plans are being formulated for another large military exercise -- Balikatan 2001 -- in the Philippines in the spring.

Last year, more 2,500 U.S. military personnel, including more than 100 from Hawaii, participated in the first combined U.S.-Philippines military exercise since 1995.

A migratory bird treaty, enacted by Congress in 1918, is the basis of a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice Legal Fund to stop the Pentagon from using a bombing range in the Northern Mariana Islands.

The Farallon de Medinilla range is located on a 220-acre island located about 150 miles north of Guam. The range is used by Marine Corps squadrons based on Okinawa and mainland-based B-52, B-1 and B-2 bombers.

The Navy has maintained that the treaty did not apply to federal agencies. But Earthjustice argues that the Navy needs a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.