DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Maj. Lawrence Otto, left, spoke about what he did as part of the first wave of aircraft sent to defend U.S. airspace over Hawaii the morning of Sept. 11. Lt. Col. Brady, right, was among the second wave of aircraft sent.
Sept. 11, 2001, seemed to begin like many other Hawaiian mornings.
Hawaii Air National Guard
Rehearsal for a global memorial
interrupted their everyday lives
to put their military skills to use
Poll: Do you think the mlitary can protect us?
Coming tomorrow
By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comMaj. Lawrence "Grinder" Otto had drawn alert duty at the Hawaii Air National Guard's F-15 jet interceptor squadron. It is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job for the members of the 199th Fighter Squadron, which has jets ready to scramble at a moment's notice.
Lt. Col. Con Brady, a traditional Air Guard pilot, had gotten up early and was on the H-2 freeway heading for Honolulu Airport to his civilian job. His mind was occupied with the details of a final Federal Aviation Administration "check ride" needed to be promoted to captain on an Aloha Airlines 737 passenger jet.
First Lt. Colette Ching had gotten up around 3:30 that morning, unable to sleep, and had just turned on the television in her Kailua home. She watched as those moments of horror unfolded.
But like many people here, Maj. Scott Hoadley was roused from a deep sleep at his Waialua home by an early-morning call from a sister-in-law in Las Vegas.
"Turn on the television," she told him. "America is under attack. Nellis (Air Force Base) is on full alert."
America had suddenly found itself at war.
Hawaii's Air National Guard unit scrambled four jet fighters and patrolled skies above the islands with orders to intercept and shoot down any suspicious aircraft. They remained in the air until the last commercial jet landed at Honolulu Airport that afternoon and the facility was closed.
Brady, a 1981 Air Force Academy graduate, had been flying F-15 combat jets for the Hawaii Air National Guard since he left the Air Force in 1989.
"You train many, many years," said Brady, 43. "You expect something like this over Iraq, but never expecting a mission of that morning."
Otto, who has been flying combat jets for 15 years, said there was never any doubt what his mission was, even if it meant shooting down a commercial jetliner whose actions could be considered questionable.
"My jaw dropped to the floor as I watched CNN," said Grinder, describing his reaction to the World Trade Center attack.
Hoadley, formerly a pilot with the Hawaii Air National Guard, immediately reported to the command center at Wheeler Army Air Field. The center houses 16 radar consoles whose sole purpose is to help maintain U.S. air sovereignty within 200 miles of the Hawaiian chain.
"It felt to me like we were at war," he said.
Brady never made it to Aloha and his FAA check ride. Instead, like many other National Guard soldiers and airmen, he reported to his duty station.
Following Sept. 11, nearly 1,000 Hawaii Army and Air Guard personnel and Army, Navy and Marine Corps reservists from the islands were placed in uniform, providing security at island airports and military installations to performing military skills they have spent years practicing.
The majority of those called up were traditional guardsmen used to being in uniform a minimum of 35 to 40 days a year. Less than half of them remain on active duty today.
The Army said that of the 110 reservists and National Guard soldiers who were called to active duty at Fort Shafter, 43 were asked to remain in uniform for another year.
Hawaii Army National Guard Maj. Bradley Higgins, a Roosevelt High School special-education teacher, has no problems being extended since "the job isn't finished."
Brady described the early-morning scene at the Hickam flight line as "organized chaos."
"It reminded me of what probably happened at Pearl Harbor," he said. "In the rush to report for duty, there were airmen there who didn't have enough time to get into their uniform but who were loading fuel tanks and rockets onto the jets wearing slippers."
Brady himself had only time to scribble crucial radio frequencies and other vital instrument data on a sticky note before climbing into his flight suit and life-support gear.
After safely escorting Otto and his wingman back to the hangar, Brady said he had a few minutes to reflect.
"I was at 30,000 feet. It was a beautiful clear day, except I didn't see a single plane on my radar," the combat pilot said. "There was no talking by air traffic controllers. Nothing. That is when it hit me. It was then I realized that this was our generation's Pearl Harbor."
Ching, who received a master's degree in counseling from the University of Hawaii in 1994, said, "The mission and threat became very real."
DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Maj. Scott Hoadley, formerly a pilot with the Hawaii Air National Guard and now air defense commander, remains on duty at Wheeler Army Air Field.
It was her job as a weapons controller with the 169th to feed tactical information to the Hawaii Air Guard's F-15 fighter pilots.
"It was physically exhausting for the first few months," said Ching, who has been working 12-hour shifts at Wheeler since then. "It was hard to get used to."
Lt. Col. Dewey Arakawa, who had just assumed command of the Hawaii Air Guard radar warning unit, said, "It's been a long year." Initially, 172 of his 212-member unit were activated. About two months ago, operations were scaled back, and many returned to civilian life.
Ching said working in the radar room for nearly a year has changed her career plans. She hopes to be able to go on active duty as an airborne warning control officer in an E3 Sentry jet.
Brady said the lesson of Sept. 11 is that America must be prepared. "On Sept. 10 we were so many different political parties, ethnic races. ... On Sept. 12 we were all Americans."
Otto said: "There is a new world order now. ... We will never be the same. It was a like a rape experience for America."
Since Sept. 11, more than 100 fighter jets at 26 bases nationwide stand ready to take off on 10 minutes' notice, up from 14 planes at seven bases on comparable alert the day of the attacks.
Collette Ching
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Adrian Eliptico Do you believe that the
military can still protect us from
any future terrorist attacks?Question asked by Star-Bulletin reporter Gregg Kakesako
Aiea; age 35
"I feel very secure as far as even with all that tyranny. Sept. 11 was a wake-up call, really. It just can't happen overseas. It can happen here. So I feel the military is a lot more prepared to handle terrorism at a different level now. Watching the television, I noticed the increased level of training the military has gone through since then. So I feel pretty comfortable it can do the job."Briana Ackerman
Hawaii Kai; age 18
"I'm fairly comfortable now because a year later we are more aware of what type of terrorist actions we are dealing with, as opposed to the very beginning when we were caught off guard and we weren't too sure how the terrorists were going to act. Now they have done a lot of studies, and they are more experienced as to what type of things they are going to have to handle and all the different actions they will have to take. So yeah, I am pretty comfortable."Trisha Wong
Mililani; age 24
"I feel that we now have a better security system, like the airports where they have increased security measures. There were a lot of investigations of what occurred. So I feel we are going to be fine. I am confident that the military will protect us. There still is a terrorist threat out there, but I feel the United States can protect us."Kora Dusendschon
Kailua; age 16
"I feel that the military can handle and protect us from future terrorist attacks, but they have to be open-minded and keep looking at all the different threats around us. Sept. 11 woke them up from like a slumber that they thought that they were perfectly safe. Like we were the No. 1 power, and then now they are open-minded and they are now looking at all the little specific evidence that they are getting. So now they are looking at every little detail. Before, they took everything for granted."Daniel Feldhaus
Hawaii Kai; age 63
"Basically, I feel the military can do a very good job in protecting us in war situations, but in terms of terrorists making different types of things like in 9/11, I don't think they are going to be able to completely stop them. We're going to still be subject to that over the next two or three years as long as the terrorist groups continue to function."Patrick Morrissey
Pearl Harbor; age 18
"Ever since 9/11, I've noticed a lot more changes in what has been going with security and everything. A lot of it I kind of thought was maybe unnecessary, and maybe they were taking things a little too far. But when I look at what is being done with the military, the military is really trying its best to protect us, and so far it seems to be effective and, I think, doing a real good job. They are being very matter-of-fact with terrorists by saying there is nothing that we are going to tolerate. So I feel really confident that if anything does happen again, the government will deal with it in a way that will send a message to terrorists that we're not going to tolerate this. It's not right."
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COMING TOMORROW
In their own words
TOMORROW, the Star-Bulletin presents a 16-page special edition entitled "We Remember." In their own words, a group of Hawaii people share their thoughts and feelings one year after the terrorists attacks. An author and mother, a firefighter, a minister, a Pentagon police officer, a Honolulu police officer, an airline pilot and a nurse talk about their emotions and issues that did not exist a year ago.
