Posted on: Wednesday, August 25, 2004
HIRAM FONG | 1906-2004
Military pomp planned for Fong
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By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Chief Master Sgt. Rob Lee will put on his blue Air Force ceremonial uniform tomorrow, adjust the silver braided honor rope over his left shoulder, tug on his white gloves and prepare to lead a detail of eight Hawai'i Air National Guardsmen who will carry the casket of former U.S. Sen. Hiram Fong into the center of the State Capitol rotunda.
Lee, who was in awe of Fong as a schoolboy in Kane'ohe, will consider it an honor to escort the body of the former senator, an ex-Air Force officer who later went to Washington, D.C., as America's first elected Asian-American senator.
"We want to give back, especially to the veterans who served our country," said Lee, 44. "Now it's our time to serve."
The services for Fong tomorrow night in the rotunda will include touches of military protocol as well as Chinese, Hawaiian and Christian symbolism in the form of foliage and flowers picked yesterday from Fong's beloved 725-acre garden in Kahalu'u.
Tomorrow night, a contingent of 12 soldiers from the Hawai'i Army National Guard and 12 airmen from the Hawai'i Air National Guard will take four-hour shifts standing sentry duty over Fong's casket. Another 24 employees from the Finance Factors company Fong helped found in 1952 will also pull four-hour shifts watching the casket.
Then Friday morning, Lee's detail — metal shoe taps clicking in unison — will return to escort Fong's casket to Nu'uanu Memorial Park & Mortuary for another public service.
Lee had no trouble assembling his detail for the two days.
"They all said they were waiting to be called," Lee said. "They all said it would be an honor
to participate. When we hear about people, icons such as Sen. Fong, we are very eager to step up to assist. It's our duty. Our motto is to honor with dignity."
As a boy, Lee's father — Robert Lee Jr. — told him stories about Fong's dedication to his family and his love for the people of Hawai'i. As a sixth- or seventh-grader, Rob Lee remembered the buzz of his teachers as they assembled the entire student body to hear Fong speak.
The details of Fong's message long ago left Lee, but he still remembers the excitement of watching a legend.
"All I knew was that I was actually seeing Hiram Fong and it was great as a kid just to see him," Lee said.
Among the military pomp tomorrow will be a floral arrangement that will lie at the head of Fong's casket, designed by Dutchie Kapu Saffery, who worked as a receptionist and secretary in Fong's Washington office for 10 years.
Saffery spent yesterday morning walking at Fong's plantation and picking a large lychee branch, 300 laua'e and green ti leaves, red ginger and other plants and foliage.
The branch represents the lychee fruit that Fong loved to bring to work; the top of the laua'e leaf symbolizes the head of the family; the red comes from Fong's Chinese heritage and depicts the blood of Christ, Saffery said.
But the base of laua'e and ti leaves may be the most important, she said.
"That's Hawai'i," she said. "It was his base, his foundation."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8085.
