Lt. Col. Placido Valenciano was only a sixth-grader at Kauai's Eleele Elementary School in 1968, the last time a Hawaii Army National Guard unit was activated for wartime duty. Diverse Guard unit
called to active dutyBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comThat same year, Mike Nii, who had completed just a semester of college in California, was drafted to fight in Vietnam.
Now those two citizen-soldiers are among the first Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers placed on active duty for a year to provide homeland defense in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Yesterday, 58 Pacific Army reservists and 18 Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers joined the more than 31,000 citizen-soldiers mobilized for duty at home and possibly overseas or in Afghanistan.
Valenciano, 44, is the commander of the Hawaii Army National Guard's Division Rear Operations Cell, and his soldiers will report to Schofield Barracks next week to serve with the 25th Infantry Division. His unit is made up of college students, mechanics, a hotel desk clerk and even a game warden. Their military job skills range from clerical to intelligence gathering and interpretation.
"Our job will be to help the division with its other obligations -- to prepare for a Bosnia deployment next year, to do its regular training and to plan for the homeland defense," said Valenciano, who will leave his job as a physical therapist at Samuel Mahelona Hospital in Kapaa.
He said that since Sept. 11 the 25th Division has been "running long shifts," and that is where he believes his unit will help out. The Kauai native, who has more than 20 years of military service, said hisunit has been training with the 25th Division for just this type of situation.
Also leaving her job as an office manager on Maui will be Staff Sgt. Neoma Naaktgeboren, who was among the 58 Army Reserve soldiers placed on active duty yesterday. Fifty-three of them are from Hawaii; five live on Guam.
The Pacific Army Reserve says that 32 are members of the 9th Regional Support Command, 17 belong to the 1101st Garrison Support Unit, and nine normally drill with the U.S. Army Japan Support Unit.
Naaktgeboren, who has spent more than 10 years in uniform, said she is ready. "This is my time to do something."
When Nii, 52, got word of the activation earlier this week, he said he immediately thought, "Here we go again."
"It's ironic going to war when I was 18, and now having to do it again at age 52 when I am close to retirement," said Nii, a 1967 graduate of Campbell High School.
"It's not a big thing," added Nii, one of the few Vietnam War veterans in the Hawaii Army National Guard. "I have been in one war before."
Staff Sgt. Michael Yoshimura, a 1977 McKinley High School graduate, looks at the one-year tour of active duty philosophically.
"This will give someone else at my hotel a chance to get more hours and keep their job," said Yoshimura, who works at the front desk at Island Colony Hotel but was not in danger of being laid off. "In my 15 years in the Guard, I knew that somewhere along the way I would have to do this."
