Briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
AIR NATIONAL GUARD
Escorted jet was an exercise
Some Honolulu residents recently reported what they thought was a commercial jetliner being escorted by a pair of F-15 fighters.
Those were Hawai'i Air National Guard F-15s, but the aircraft they were shadowing was an Air Guard KC-135R tanker.
"It was a drill, an exercise," said Guard spokesman Maj. Chuck Anthony. "Every once in a while we'll scramble our jets and conduct an exercise, and that's what people evidently saw.
"We do keep aircraft on alert 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a number of different contingencies."
Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the fighters escorted planes nearing O'ahu.
The fighters also followed commercial jetliners on Sept. 21, 2001, after a Los Angeles-bound aircraft returned to Honolulu with a mechanical problem, and on Oct. 11, 2001, when a private plane's transponder malfunctioned. The transponder helps air traffic controllers identify aircraft on radar.
NAVY
SEALs assist ailing man
Navy SEALs from Delivery Vehicle Team One parachuted from a Coast Guard C-130 on Feb. 15 to provide medical assistance to a man aboard a Cypress-based ship 350 miles east of Hilo, Hawai'i.
The 49-year-old Bulgarian, a welder on the Nordrhine, was suffering from pending renal failure because of an enlarged prostate, according to the on-scene commander.
The SEALs first released a "duck," or hard rubber boat, into the water, and then made the static-line jump from the C-130.
Four SEALs made their way to the ship, where they found the crew member screaming in pain. Team members used a 20-inch needle to pierce the ailing man's stomach and bladder to remove fluids.
The man was hospitalized in Hilo and flew back to Bulgaria on Feb. 20.
VP-47 squadron back in Hawai'i
Navy Patrol Squadron 47 recently returned to Marine Corps Base Hawai'i after a six-month deployment that included missions over Afghanistan and the Philippines, and training exercises with Japan and South Korea.
In six months' time, VP-47's "Golden Swordsmen" flew more than 6,000 hours in the squadron's P-3 Orion anti-submarine and reconnaissance aircraft, requiring more than 104,000 maintenance work hours.
Combat Aircrew 2 led the way home for the patrol squadron.
VP-47 participated in the Combined Afloat Readiness and Training 2002 exercise, which took place in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.
ALL SERVICES
Participation in survey asked
U.S. Pacific Command is encouraging all uniformed service members in the state to participate in a Cost of Living Allowance survey to establish a new rate.
The "living pattern" survey, conducted every three years by the Department of Defense, is available online through March 31 at www.perdiem.osd.mil/oscola/lps/hawaii.
The survey seeks information on where service members shop and eat and how much they buy from off-base retailers.
Service members stationed overseas in high-cost areas receive COLA pay.
"The last COLA survey conducted in Hawai'i was in 1999 and only 150 service members responded out of the nearly 43,000 eligible personnel stationed here," said Eddie Fowler, a personnel policy analyst with U.S. Pacific Command's Manpower, Personnel and Administration Directorate. "It's in all the eligible service members' interest to complete the survey to ensure the results accurately reflect the cost of living here in Hawai'i."
