E-mail penetrates war clouds
| • | Kanoa Vasquez's e-mail to his mom |
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
Warnings of an impending war with Iraq were delivered to the nation Monday by President Bush, but they came in a much more personal way yesterday for Toni Hambaro.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
"Well you guys watched the news and know what's going on here, I hope," Air Force Staff Sgt. Kanoa Vasquez, who's in in Saudi Arabia, wrote to his mom by e-mail. "They shut down the phones already and I don't know how long they're going to leave the e-mail running."
Toni Hambaro of Makaha is the mother of Air Force Staff Sgt. Kanoa Vasquez, who is in Saudi Arabia and has been in touch by e-mail.
Vasquez, 24, a 1997 Wai'anae High School graduate, said: "This e-mail is to let you guys know that if I don't respond to your e-mails there is a reason."
"Mom, don't freak out," said the military policeman from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. "I'll be all right. If you guys know me ... you know I'll always be happy and I'll always make the best of things."
With the nation on the brink of war, Hambaro, a city bus driver, hasn't exactly been able to heed her son's advice.
"You know, I'm calm now," the Makaha resident said yesterday. "But every parent worries."
"I'm not freaked out where I'm going to run down the street in my underwear," she said, trying to make light of the situation. "I'm just very worried and concerned. I've been crying because I'm so upset and worried something's going to happen to him."
Photo courtesy Toni Hambaro
Hambaro has two sons to fret about: Vasquez' brother, Kai, 22, is in the Air Force in South Korea.
Kai Vasquez, 22, is in the Air Force in South Korea.
"So I've got a double whammy here," she said.
At least four Pearl Harbor-based ships and several submarines, nearly 550 Marines, 50 airmen from Hickam Air Force Base, about 80 Schofield Barracks soldiers, a Coast Guard cutter and hundreds of National Guard troops and other reservists from Hawai'i are, or soon will be, in the Persian Gulf region as the clock ticks toward war.
Tensions are higher now than just weeks ago for units like the Marines' 4th Force Reconnaissance Company out of Kane'ohe Bay, which has about 40 of the special operations troops in the desert of Kuwait. The unit specializes in operations deep behind enemy lines.
"So what's going on?" Staff Sgt. Steven K. Taylor, a 4th Force member, wrote in an e-mail to his wife, Kristina Bell-Taylor, on Feb. 20. "I'm sitting here in the tent trying to escape a sandstorm. It's really weird; the ambient light right now is yellow. I can't believe that we are here again."
While people here wonder about life in the desert for U.S. troops, Marines like Taylor just want to stay in touch with home.
"So how are things back on the ranch? How's your new car? Did you get the same one you had before?" he asked.
Taylor, 34, a Kailua High School graduate who works as a salesman for Ikon Office Solutions in civilian life, said: "... All we've been doing is training and 'digging in.' We've been filling sand bags and covering our bunkers and we've been doing our chemical and gas training."
As of Sunday, Taylor said, the unit was "going back to the field today."
"Should be back sometime tomorrow," he said. "Who knows. We've kinda' been operating on a day to day basis."
About 250 Kane'ohe Bay Marines from the 1st Radio Battalion, meanwhile, transformed a sandy area of Camp Commando, Kuwait, into a small tent city. "Camp Hale Koa" has a TV, DVD player, VCR, Nintendo, board games and microwave.
Bell-Taylor said the regular e-mail and phone contact she's had with her husband has been somewhat of a comfort.
U.S. Marine Corps
"(Now) is probably the hardest time since he left because you know this (a war) is going to happen, it's around the bend, but you don't know what's going to happen," she said. "Just to hear him talk about things like, 'Oh, when I get back home, we're going to do this' — it's reassurance he's going to come home."
Sgt. Maj. Juan D. Williams of the 1st Radio Battalion and Lt. Col. Mark T. Aycock, commanding officer of the Kane'ohe unit, raise the Hawai'i flag above their headquarters in Kuwait. They named their camp "Hale Koa," using the Hawaiian phrase for "house of warriors."
Coast Guard members on board the Honolulu-based cutter Walnut in Bahrain said yesterday that they are standing by to respond to what could be a massive dumping of oil by Saddam Hussein in a war. The buoy tender also is conducting classified missions.
The 225-foot cutter, with a crew of about 50, has a skimming system that can pump up to 400 gallons of oil a minute and inflatable barges that each can hold 25,000 gallons of oil. In the first Gulf War, Iraq pumped 5 million barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf — 20 times the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
Derrick Borel, a boatswain's mate 3rd class on the Walnut who heard the president's speech live on Voice of America, said it "really described what's been going on in Iraq for years now."
In Borel's viewpoint: "It's about a lot more than just the weapons inspections. I think the Iraqi people look forward to a new Iraq."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
'Don't freak out, I'll be all right'
Photo courtesy Toni Hambaro
The following e-mail was sent yesterday from Saudi Arabia by Air Force Staff Sgt. Kai Vasquez to his mother, Toni Hambaro:
Staff Sgt. Kanoa Vasquez has used e-mail to keep in touch with his mother as well as his brother, who is stationed with the Air Force in South Korea, and his girlfriend, who is stationed at an Air Force base in California.
"Well, you guys watched the news and know what's going on here, I hope. They shut down the phones already and I don't know how long they're going to leave the e-mail running. This e-mail is to let you guys know that if I don't respond to your e-mails there is a reason. Mom, don't freak out, I'll be all right. If you guys know me (and you guys better) you know I'll always be happy and I'll always make the best of things. Kai, you know mom is freaking out right now so let her know I'll be all right and there is nothing to worry about. Jen, don't worry, I told you this could happen, just help Kai tell my mom there is nothing to worry about. You both are in the military and no one knows better than you two that this is what we signed up to do and trained for. Besides, I think it'll be fun. Well, I got to get going now, I love you all and will be home shortly.
"Aloha, Kanoa"
Kanoa Vasquez, 24, is a Wai'anae High School graduate, Class of '97. His brother, Kai Vasquez, is stationed with the Air Force in South Korea, and his girlfriend, Jen, is stationed at an Air Force base in California.
Correction: Photos of Kanoa Vasquez and Kai Vasquez were incorrectly identified in a previous version of this story.
