Isle National Guard The number of Hawaii Air National Guard technicians, jet pilots, tanker crewmen, air traffic controllers, and weapons and radar operators called to active duty as part of the nation's newest homeland defense initiative following the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks continues to grow.
call-up hits 322
The figure represents Hawaii's
largest activation since
the Vietnam WarBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comThe National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C., reports that so far 322 citizen soldiers from various Hawaii Air National Guard units on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island have been placed on active duty. That is the largest call-up of National Guard personnel since the Vietnam War.
In 1968, nearly 1,500 members of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade were called to active duty.
The latest figures released by the Guard Bureau include 141 people belonging to the Air Guard's 154th Wing, 199th Fighter Squadron and 203rd Air Refueling Squadron at Hickam Air Force Base; 173 from the 169th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron at Wheeler Army Airfield; one from the 292nd Combat Communications Squadron on Maui; four from the 291st Combat Communications Squadron in Hilo; and three belonging to the 297th Air Traffic Control Squadron at Barbers Point.
National Guard spokesman Maj. Chuck Anthony said the five neighbor island Hawaii Air Guard personnel and the three stationed at Barbers Point were called up to help with security at the airports on their islands. He said all of the reservists are serving in various capacities and for "various lengths of time."
Eighteen Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers, belonging to the Division Rear Operations Cell, are now working at Schofield Barracks supporting the 25th Infantry Division. At Fort Shafter, 56 Army Reservists are now on active duty.
Over the past several years the Hawaii Air National Guard's nine jet tankers -- KC-135s, belonging to the 203rd -- have seen a lot of active duty. In 1999 during the war in the Balkans, the jet tankers and their crews were placed in the active-duty rotation refueling combat jets from a base in France.
Nearly half of the Air Force's 600 refuelers belong to reserve units like the 203rd, flying KC-135s, which are the military's version of the civilian Boeing 707 jet liner. These flying gas stations, capable of carrying 33,000 gallons of JP-8 jet fuel, form "air bridges" at vital locations around the globe so jet fighters, bombers and cargo planes do not have to land to be refueled.
Pilots of the 199th Fighter Squadron were pressed into duty immediately after terrorist attacks in Washington and New York City.
By early afternoon on Sept. 11, the F-15 jet fighters belonging to the 199th Fighter Squadron had escorted the last commercial plane to Honolulu Airport, including an Air Force transport carrying the commander of the Pacific Air Forces, before the Federal Aviation Administration shut the airport down. Since then, the 199th and its nine F-15 jet fighters have had the authority to shoot down aircraft that fail to respond.
