COURTESY OF TAKESHI AND KAREN TAKEMOTO
Hawaii-born U.S. Army Col. Glenn Takemoto becomes the leader of a brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C., today. He is shown here with his wife, retired Lt. Col. Lytle Takemoto.
UH grad pilots unit
of AirborneGlenn Takemoto takes over
a brigade of the elite 82nd Division
On a North Carolina parade ground today, Farrington High graduate Col. Glenn Takemoto will accept command of a brigade of the U.S. Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division.
But for Takeshi Takemoto, who couldn't make this morning's change of command ceremony at Fort Bragg, there's another moment 27 years ago that was equally impressive -- when his son took charge of the University of Hawaii's Army ROTC battalion and led a parade. The elder Takemoto said he didn't know until that moment that his son was in charge of his Army ROTC unit.
"When I saw him leading everybody, I just flipped out," his father said. "I was so proud. There was Gov. (George) Ariyoshi and lot of other officers watching as he led all those soldiers and other military units."
Growing up in Kalihi, Takemoto's son was a "rascal," the father said. "But somewhere he changed. Maybe it was the JROTC unit he was in at Farrington ... but he changed. He became more serious."
Glenn Takemoto, in a phone interview from Fort Bragg last night, said that when he entered the UH after graduating from Farrington in 1974, he wanted to major in engineering.
"I found out that I didn't like it," said Takemoto, 47. "I went to the UH testing center and, after taking a battery of five tests, I was told I should consider business and ROTC."
It wasn't until after he attended basic Army summer camp training between his sophomore and junior year that he discovered that he and the Army were a good fit.
"It was challenging that summer," Takemoto said. "I found that I liked that. I liked the challenge."
The UH Army ROTC program also was where he found his future wife, Lytle Kaaweloa, a 1974 Kamehameha Schools graduate, and a fellow Army cadet. She also made the Army a career, retiring in 1998 as a lieutenant colonel after 20 years.
Takemoto said it was during his first tour with the 82nd Division as a junior lieutenant fresh out of the UH that he realized that he wanted to make the Army a career.
"I just liked it a lot ... being in the military, the camaraderie, the environment at Fort Bragg."
This will be his fourth tour with the 82nd. He has already commanded two battalions in the "All American Division" where the soldiers have to be ready to move into conflict at a moment's notice.
"Our standard is 18 hours and wheels up," Takemoto said, "which means we have to be airborne 18 hours after we get the call."
In between those commands, Takemoto and his wife have served in Korea and have done two tours in Hawaii. During one of those tours Takemoto earned a master's degree in business from Chaminade University.
He also was working at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, when a hijacked jetliner crashed into the building.
"I measured it myself," said Takemoto. "It was 75 paces from the where the building collapsed. I saw the fireball. I remember the impact.
"It took me three or four hours before I could get word to my wife at home that I was OK."
Takemoto said returning to the 82nd Division is like coming home.
"Serving in the 82nd is a privilege," said the soldier who has recorded 148 parachute jumps. "The soldiers are highly motivated. They volunteered to serve. Then they volunteered to go to jump school. Then they volunteered to stay on jump status.
"These are triple volunteers. These are folks who are looking for a challenge in life."
Takemoto will assume command today of the 82nd Division's Division Support Command, made up of 2,200 soldiers, which already has one battalion in Afghanistan and another in Iraq.
He plans to visit those soldiers this summer before they are rotated back to the mainland.
