Fire Capt. 'Moke' Hauanio retires
By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer
Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Wallace "Moke" Hauanio retired yesterday having left his mark on the future of the department.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
As the department's senior recruit training officer, Hauanio was responsible for training 467 of the department's 1,028 current firefighters, including 80 percent of the beginning ranks called Fire Fighter I.
Honolulu Fire Department Capt. "Moke" Hauanio retired yesterday after 30 years in the department.
"I feel really certain that future fire chiefs will come up from his training," said Capt. Richard Soo, Fire Department spokesman.
Yesterday, the 51-year-old Hauanio served his last day and said farewell at the Mokulele Fire Station to a handful of firefighters he helped train.
"I've enjoyed every minute of this job," said Hauanio, who taught recruit classes for 14 years and retired after 30 years in the department. "Anyone who wants to be a firefighter, this is where you want to be. I hope the department is in better shape with all the recruits I have trained. I know the department is alive and well."
Todd Cabral, 31, who has worked with Hauanio for two years and holds the rank of Fire Fighter I, called Hauanio "one of the best firefighters I have met."
Firefighter recruit Mike Seeger, 29, said Hauanio never overlooked any recruit and was always willing to share his firefighting knowledge.
"He's very professional, yet he's very approachable," Seeger said. "We're losing a good piece of the puzzle on the training side."
Hauanio said the future of the Fire Department looks promising with hundreds of young and hungry recruits.
"I think we're going to get better because we're coming in with new ideas," Hauanio said. "These people are highly motivated to move forward. There's a lot of big pluses with the department being young, (but) we need time to grow. We're going to stumble, we're going to rumble, we're going to bumble, but we'll get to a position where everyone is up to par. And being a young department, full of energy, we're just coming out like guns ablazing."
In his career, Hauanio said he remembered working at several incidents including a fatal Palama rooming house fire on May 28, 1973, that killed three men and the June Jones crash on the H-1 Freeway on Feb. 22, 2001, that nearly killed the University of Hawai'i football coach.
He said all those cases helped him gain valuable experience which he passed along to recruits.
"We're going to miss Capt. Hauanio," said Honolulu Fire Chief Attilio K. Leonardi. "He's been one of movers and shakers in the recruit program. He developed it into a first-class operation. He's instilled a lot of semi-military values in the program and that's what makes it a top-notch program. I hate to see him go. I tried to talk him into staying."
Hauanio said he will move to the Big Island. Hauanio's second in command, Capt. Byron Akiona, is scheduled to replace him.
Hauanio graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1968. He has been married for 32 years to wife, Deborah. They have three children, Joshua, 32; Jason, 29; and Jon, 23; and three grandchildren. His hobbies include golf, fishing, paddling and coaching paddling and high school football.
Reach Brandon Masuoka at bmasuoka@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8110.
