At Your Service
For and about Hawaii's militaryBy Gregg K. Kakesako
Sunday, December 9, 2001
See also: For Your Benefit
91st Division commander
and former Hilo resident
up for major-general postArmy Reserve Brig. Gen. Rodney M. Kobayashi, a former Hilo resident, has been nominated for appointment as a major general. Kobayashi is the commander of the 91st Division (Training Support), Dublin, Calif. As a civilian, Kobayashi is a territorial manager for the Internal Revenue Service and lives in Washington.
Kobayashi was a member of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade in 1966 and was activated for Vietnam duty in 1968. After he left active duty in 1971, he joined the Army Reserve and was a company commander in the 100th Battalion/442nd Infantry. He later served in various positions with the Army Reserve in California. He is a graduate of the University of Hawaii.
The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and its battle group of eight ships, including the Pearl Harbor-based cruiser USS Port Royal, made an extended five-day visit to Hong Kong last week on its way to the Afghanistan war zone. The Stennis battle group visited Hong Kong Nov. 30-Dec. 5. It began its latest deployment ahead of its scheduled January departure to ensure that the USS Carl Vinson battle group be rotated home by January at the end of its six-month tour at sea.
Concerns of anthrax contamination through the mail have moved the Pentagon to create a Web site for posting holiday messages to troops overseas.
This is modeled after the holiday program where Americans sent personal letters to anonymous troops through the postal service under the "Any Service Member" letter-writing campaign.
The Web site is intended to replace the "Operation Dear Abby" program founded 17 years ago by newspaper advice columnist Abigail Van Buren.
The program was called off this year after anthrax-tainted letters turned up in New York and Washington, including at least one that passed through a post office at the Pentagon.
Navy officials created the "Any Service Member" Web site as a branch of their LIFELines site, www.LIFELines2000.org, which provides information to sailors on pay and benefit programs and support services.
Each visitor to the "Any Service Member" site will be asked to provide their name, home state and the service branch to which their message should be directed. They then can type in a message of up to 1,000 characters to be posted on the site, including their e-mail address if they wish a reply.
Vice Adm. John Grossenbacher, commander of Naval Submarine Forces, has rejected a request that a woman be allowed on a technical team that will go to sea on a submarine to evaluate a new sonar system, which some saw as an attempt to ease open the door for women in the undersea service -- a controversial topic in the Navy. The engineer was a Navy lieutenant commander who has been trained in submarine operations.
The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services has pushed for much more. Four months after then-Navy Secretary Richard Danzig raised the prospect of women on submarines at a symposium in June 1999, the committee recommended the Navy plan to integrate women into Virginia-class submarines, which will enter the service in 2004. The agency, which advises the defense secretary on issues relating to women in the service, also recommended the Navy begin assigning women officers to Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines.
The Navy has said that the cramped, no-privacy conditions on a submarine are not suitable for gender-integrated crews. Typically, crewmen have to "hot rack" -- use a bed that someone else has just vacated -- because there are not enough bunks to go around, and there are 50 people per shower on a submarine vs. 25 people to a shower on surface ships.
The Navy estimates it would cost $5 million per submarine to modify them to accommodate women, not counting design costs and required changes to other systems changes. That works out to about $313,000 per crew member, almost 80 times the cost for modifying an aircraft carrier to accommodate women.
Moving Up
Pearl Harbor
>> Capt. Richard Nolan to command the cruiser USS Chosin, relieving Capt. Peter Daspit.>> Cmdr. Frederick Pfirrmann to command the destroyer USS Paul Hamilton, relieving Cmdr. Dennis O'Meara.
>> Cmdr. Charles Harris to command the nuclear attack submarine USS Honolulu, relieving Cmdr. John Richardson.
>> Cmdr. Andrew Hale to command the nuclear attack submarine USS Santa Fe, relieving Cmdr. David Marquet.
Gregg K. Kakesako can be reached by phone at 294-4075
or by e-mail at gkakesako@starbulletin.com.
