Guarding Hawaii Malu Makinney was attending her Hawaiian language class at Leeward Community College when she got a call on her cell phone.
Members of a Hawaii Air National
Guard squadron patrol isle
skies to preserve safetyAT YOUR SERVICE
By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comIt was from her sergeant at Wheeler Army Air Field.
His orders: "Come in tomorrow."
By Oct. 1, Makinney, 21, and 171 members of the Hawaii Air National Guard's 169th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron were placed on indefinite active duty as part of the nation's homeland defense team mobilized following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Senior Airman Troy Unebasami, 30, said the order was a rude awakening for nearly 60 traditional citizen soldiers in the unit.
"Never in a million years did I think our unit would be mobilized because our unit isn't a mobile unit."
"A lot of my friends called and asked (after Sept. 11) are you going to get activated?" Unebasami added. "I said no way."
Even Lt. Col. Dewey Arakawa, who assumed command of the Wahiawa unit in July, acknowledges that he didn't believe the Air Guard unit ever would be placed on active duty.That's because the 169th's mission is air defense, or ensuring U.S. air sovereignty in Hawaii skies, with a cadre of 115 full-time Air National Guard technicians and 60 reservists.
"Our mission has always been air defense, and since 1958 we have been doing this 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Arakawa, who served for five years as a weapons officer on an E-3 airborne warning and control aircraft in the Air Force.
But that was before terrorists brought their cause to the United States and made homeland defense a priority. Several other Hawaii Army National Guard and Army Reserve units have been pressed into indefinite service since Sept. 11 to work in various capacities at Fort Shafter and Schofield Barracks.
Arakawa watched the Sept. 11 drama unfold on television from his home in Waipahu. He was called to come to work early.
"It was an uneasy feeling," said Arakawa, who has been a member of the 169th for 17 years after leaving the Air Force.
But the morale of the unit was impressive. "Based on what they saw on television," Arakawa said, "individuals came and volunteered their help. Others called in asking whether they should report in."
Within hours weapons controllers at the 169th's command center, known as the Hawaii Region Air Operations, were in contact and directing F-15 combat jets belonging to the Hawaii Air National Guard's 199th Fighter Squadron.
These U.S. jets, with orders to shoot down errant aircraft, stayed in the air until the last commercial jet was escorted to Honolulu Airport and the facility was locked down.
"We monitor Hawaiian air space," said Senior Airman Tammy Lunasco, who until Oct. 1 was an office manager for downtown real estate appraisal and consultant firm.
Arakawa said the 169th works closely with the Federal Aviation Administration. "We receive all their flight plans and use them to identify aircraft ... We want to know who is flying over us. We want to protect the public."
It is the job of weapons controllers, Arakawa said, to detect, identify and intercept an unknown aircraft. "They are the ones that scramble those jets from Hickam."
Until Oct. 1 the 169th was referred as "a stealth" unit since there wasn't much known about its operations other than the massive radar dome, which sits on Mount Kaala and is shared with the FAA.
Makinney, a 1998 Campbell High School graduate, said her mother, who lives in Virginia, was so concerned when she learned that her daughter was being called to active duty that she cried. "She cried because she thought they were going to send me, her baby, to Afghanistan."
"But my dad was surprised and proud because I would be learning to do my job and doing it more than one weekend a month," said Makinney, a supply management specialist.
"My mom also is proud once she learned that I would be staying here."
Lunasco, Makinney and Unebasami all agreed that the transition from civilian to military life was rocky in the beginning.
More so for Unebasami, a 1989 Moanalua High School graduate, who has a son, Trent, just 10 weeks old.
He had requested interisland flight duties as an attendant with Hawaiian Air Lines in August and September when his son was born to help his girlfriend, Denise, out. As a Hawaiian Air flight attendant he had been on mainland runs to the West Coast. He is hoping to continue to fly part-time -- a reversal in roles since his part-time job now demands most of his time.
All three Hawaii Air National Guard personnel joined the reserves to take advantage of its tuition assistance program, which covers about half of all educational expenses. Unebasami graduated from the University of Hawaii with the help of the program in 1998.
Despite the transition and the uncertainty, these Hawaii Air Guard personnel view the situation as a challenge.
"It's challenging," said Lunasco, "but at the same time it is rewarding."
"The biggest challenge is for my girlfriend," Unebasami said. "Me not being away and having a new born is making everything a lot rougher. But she supports me and her supports means a lot."
Unebasami also has support of his family, especially his dad, Master Sgt. Michael Unebasami, who has been in the 169th for 31 years.
