Soldier-customers leave Wahiawa to cope

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Spc. Julius Joseph stops in at Car Audio & Security Specialists to have a car alarm installed before his deployment to Iraq. Photos by Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

John Eiting worries about his soldier-customers at Top Hat Bar. "They really are nice guys, and I'm going to miss them," he said.

Ahn Nelson, owner of El'Gant Alterations in Wahiawa, has seen a last-minute rush of business hemming uniforms.

Penny Penny says many of her clients at Ebony's House of Hair are Army spouses who will now be returning to the Mainland.

Lance McLain, owner of Dragon Tattoo, is among the Wahiawa business owners who depend heavily on Army customers.

"I just wanted to get this done for her before I leave," said Joseph, an Army medic.

Around the corner on California Avenue, soldiers have been streaming into Aloha Pawn to sell their guitars, tools and stereos before they're deployed. And along Kamehameha Highway, the 14 workers at El'gant Alterations continue to hem Army uniforms from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. amid piles of camouflaged bullet-proof vests, pants and jackets. Soldiers often stand in a line that snakes out the door and down the sidewalk.

In Wahiawa, a town linked by geography and economic fortunes to Schofield Barracks, a handful of merchants are experiencing a last-minute rush of business as the first of 4,800 soldiers have begun shipping out to Iraq.

In a few months, another 4,000 Schofield soldiers will begin to leave for Afghanistan in an overall deployment the size of which hasn't been seen since the Vietnam War. For some, the last major conflict involving Schofield soldiers provides the freshest memories.

"Desert Storm is probably the closest deployment that comes close to this," said Dan Nakasone of the Wahiawa Community and Business Association. "But this particular deployment is much bigger. That's the scary part. Even though it's much bigger, it's hard to tell the depth of the impact until they're all gone."

The fears of many Wahiawa business people have been confirmed, as sales dropped by as much as half in one week.

"It's started already," said Penny Penny, the owner of Ebony's House of Hair salon.

In the middle of the afternoon, Penny's shop normally would be filled. Instead, she sat in the empty salon and estimated she would lose 80 percent of her business when an unknown number of spouses move back to the Mainland while their husbands and wives are deployed for the next year or more.

"Lots of my customers have already packed up and left," said Penny, whose Navy husband, Chief Petty Officer Cedric White, is preparing for sea duty in the Persian Gulf.

Wahiawa's weary-looking storefronts are used to the economic ups and downs that come with being so close to Schofield Barracks. The Top Hat Bar, which opened Dec. 1, 1941, still bears the scars from a Japanese Zero's three bullets that strafed the place six days after its grand opening and took out its brand new neon sign during the raid on Pearl Harbor.

But the current generation of 150 or so business people hasn't suffered through a deployment this big. And they don't know what the estimated $310 million overall drop in business will mean for them.

"It's too early to tell," said Lance McLain, standing in his empty Dragon Tattoo shop on Kamehameha Highway, of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism forecast. Like other business owners in town, McLain is a veteran who calls Wahiawa "just a satellite of Schofield Barracks."

McLain served in the Navy in the 1970s, retired as a petty officer second class and set up his tattoo business 17 years ago.

In the past two weeks, a handful of soldiers have gotten tattoos of their girlfriends' or wives' names just before shipping out.

"But it hasn't been like I've had a line out the door," McLain said. "People like me are just waiting and wondering what's going to happen."

Other businesses that don't attract an Army crowd haven't been affected.

Gladys Okamura, owner of the tiny Kitchen Delight restaurant, advertises a popular "Shock & Awe" breakfast of two eggs, two scoops of rice and a choice of five meats for just $1.75.

But 99 percent of her customers are local residents drawn to her plate lunches. "No change," Okamura said. "The soldiers don't eat this kind of food."

Some 150 businesses from Mililani to the North Shore that do rely on military customers have organized under the Wahiawa Community and Business Association, Rotary Club of Wahiawa-Waialua and the Rotary Club of Mililani Sunrise to offer discounts to family members left behind.

The discounts vary, and generally run throughout the year.

John Eiting, who owns the Top Hat Bar, expects to lose half of his business when the soldiers pull out. To make up for it, Eiting is trying to attract more local business from the North Shore.

Even if he does cover his anticipated losses, Eiting still expects to worry about the soldiers. He was a Navy hospital corpsman in Vietnam who later joined the Army Reserve in Hawai'i as a major. He hates the thought of what teenage soldiers might experience in battle.

"I think about that more than I do my business," Eiting said. "They really are nice guys, and I'm going to miss them. And that's from the heart."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.