Reservists answer call here and throughout U.S.
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Ryan Sueyoshi didn't go to his job with the highways division of the state Department of Transportation Tuesday morning after hearing about the attacks on New York and Washington.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
Instead, the Army reservist put on his uniform and reported to work at Fort Shafter. Since that day, he's been working as a sergeant major at the 9th Regional Support Command.
Army reservist Ryan Sueyoshi must balance the needs of his country and that of his daughter, Rachel.
Other transportation workers are taking on his projects as well as their own to cover for his absence, he said.
Maj. Lorie Javier, operations training officer for the same unit, usually teaches seventh grade at King Intermediate School on weekdays. She, too, was wearing a uniform last week. A substitute teacher filled in for her in Kane'ohe after her commander called her to temporary military duty.
Despite statewide teacher shortages, she said, her principal told her to do what she needed to do.
"The state has been really good to us," Javier said last week.
The state of Hawai'i won't be the only employer required to make concessions for military reservists and guardsmen in the weeks and months to come.
Employers throughout the United States will be asked to find ways to do without their citizen-soldier employees.
President Bush on Friday authorized the call of up to 50,000 reservists and guardsmen. Late last week, the military services had identified mission requirements for 35,000 members.
Most, according to an Armed Forces Information Service statement released Friday, will be used to "conduct port operations missions, medical support, engineering support, general civil support and homeland defense operations."
Participation under the national call-up is expected in include 10,000 for the Army, 13,000 Air Force, 3,000 Navy and 7,500 Marines and 2,000 Coast Guard.
Most of the positions will be filled by volunteers, officials said.
Spokesmen for the Army reserve in Hawai'i and the Hawai'i Air and Army National Guard said Friday they were still uncertain how local guardsmen and reservists would be affected by the national call-up.
John Ma, command executive officer for the Army's 9th Regional Support Command, said his unit hadn't yet received any specifics regarding reservists in Hawai'i.
Separate from the national call-up, many local guardsmen and reservists were called in locally over the past week to assist their units in Hawai'i.
Sueyoshi and Javier helped to set up an emergency operations center.
Sueyoshi said he volunteered on Tuesday because he knew he would be needed.
"That need outweighed my civilian work and even — for the moment — my family," he said.
In the aftermath of the attacks, Sueyoshi said working as a soldier helped him cope with the horrors to which the nation had been subjected.
"It helped to deal with the enormity of the situation, to feel like I'm making some sort of a contribution, no matter how small," he said.
But by Friday, Sueyoshi said the tugs of the civilian world were growing stronger.
"I'm a single parent," he said. "My daughter will be 10 years old in October. And at work, my projects have been taken over by people who have their own projects.
"That puts a little pressure on," he said.
