 ThinkTek Hawaii, civil engagement lives here. Okay, and welcome to another edition of Hawaiian Uniform. I'm your host Calvin Griffin, and for those of you who may have seen the program before, which I can't imagine who doesn't watch it, but anyhow. During the program we talk about a lot of issues concerning military and veterans, and today I have two special guests, one by phone and also one in the studio, Mr. Dennis Igay, the regional chapter of NAOS, and I'll let you say something in a moment. And also we have Ms. Deborah Buquette, who's with the Marketing Director for the U.S. Marine Corps Community Services. Is Buquette there? I'm here. Good morning. Okay, just in case if I screw up your title, if you can just tell me your position again, and how a little bit about yourself. My name is Debbie Buquette, as he said, and I'm the Marketing Director with Marine Corps Community Services here at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay. And what I do is a promotion of events and programs for the Marine sailors and family members who are stationed with the Marine Corps here in Hawaii. So a lot of folks out in the public don't necessarily see it unless it's an air show or a bay fest. But what we do on a regular day-to-day basis is everything that covers from cradle to grave. We take care of childcare and new parenting all the way through education and counseling, recreation programs, leisure activities, you name it. If it touches morale well for a recreation, we do it. Great. Okay. May I call you Debbie? Yes, you may. Okay. But Debbie, I also have Dennis Igay in the studio and he's Dennis Huber in the Navy before, right? How many tours in Nam did you do? Two. Two? Okay. I know it's hard to have to one. You lose count. Okay. Debbie, what else? There's an event that's coming up, of course, this year or I think it started last year, the commemoration of certain events that happened in Vietnam and celebrating the service of the men and women that served over there. But could you tell us about the event that's coming up and how it's coming along? Absolutely. So March 29th was declared as National Vietnam War Veterans Day and this year the commission, the Vietnam War Commemoration Commission is partnering with all branches of armed forces and they're asking us to find unique ways to honor our Vietnam veterans between March 25th and 29th in honor of this special National Vietnam War Veterans Day. So here at K-Bay, what we've decided to do is to reach out to the Veterans Service Organizations and find out, you know, what would ring true for them? What would be something that they would like? And we were told a concert. So we are doing a concert event with information booths with service organizations to share with National, to share the information with all of our Vietnam Vets here at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on March 29th. It's from 4 to 8 p.m. And a lot of our Vietnam veterans, we realized they didn't serve their full 20 years so they may not have access to a military installation on a regular basis. So we are offering shuttle service to bring our Vets to the event to enjoy this free concert and to, we'll have some memorabilia booths where they can come out and kind of talk, enjoy some camaraderie. And what we'd like to do is, as our part of joining the nation and our veterans, we would like to offer them their veteran pins while they're here. We have some other collateral and bumper stickers that we'd like to share with them. So we're looking for ways to reach out to the veterans and let them know, hey, we can bring you to the base. Right, okay. I know that, of course, when people think about Vietnam and the people that served there, there were a lot of women who served over there. The groups that's going to be represented at the event, that mainly have women members. It's funny that you say that. My first contact that I reached out to was Miss Rona Adams who is the president of the Vietnam Veterans Oahu Chapter and she has been a whirlwind and a blessing in helping to get the word out. So she's definitely going to be there and has reached out to so many others and she herself is a veteran serving two terms, I believe, as a nurse during the war. Yeah. I've known her for quite a while. She's a very dynamic individual. I know with all the different things that's going to be going on at the event, again, showing the appreciation to the veterans, is there going to be anything in place where they can relive or not relive, but share some of their experiences with future generations? What we're hoping is that they will share their stories with our young audience. Our marine base tends to be a very young audience of new folks coming in every year. So our population is very much so those young marines who are E5 and below and to have an opportunity to be sharing their stories kind of helps to to build resiliency and readiness by just sharing what happened in past context and it's a learning experience and educational experience. So we would like to encourage that conversation between the generations. You mentioned of course this is as far as access to the base. If there's any civilians out there do they have the opportunity or is not available at this time? No, it's not open to the public. Unfortunately, this is a closed event for military only. We are offering shuttle service for Vietnam vets and their families. We need them to call us to reserve seats to be on the buses if I could give you that number. Yes, we can put that up. It is 808-254-7679. And if you can repeat that one more time? 808-254-7679. And then we'll be able to get reservations placed to be able to have these folks access the installation. Great. Being in the position that you are right now what do you find most enjoyable about your job? I think what I find most enjoyable here is every day there's something new that we're doing. It doesn't matter if it's three-on-three basketball or something for our single-marines and sailor it's interacting and being able to provide service. I enjoy being able to share everything that we have available. I grew up as a military brat in a Marine Corps family and there is so much that we offer now that didn't exist back in my day. So I find it to be a unique thing that I can say, hey, did you know you could spend your three years while you're here in Hawaii and you could learn how to surf or you could get your boating license. You could learn to golf. There's so many things we could do for you. It's so much more enjoyable. What are some of the other things that people don't know about what is offered as far as morale for the troops? For people who have come out to the base for our large events that have in the past been open to the public, we've done Kaneohe Bay Air Shows which draw 150,000 people to the base or a bass fest where we'd have concerts and draw maybe 30,000 or more people to the base. On a regular basis, we also offer counseling services. We offer childcare. We have three child development centers on the base because so many of our Marines are young and they're young family members. We have an elementary school so we have all their kids that are there. We have the day care that we take care of them in the CDCs. We have new parenting where if you're just now becoming a parent we send counselors to come help you prepare and check in on you if you need help. If parenting is not your thing we have education centers so we can help you to work towards your degree so that you can better your experience when you get out of the service. That's good that there's a lot of different issues that's going on that concern not only the troops in the Marine Corps or Navy and Marines but overall there's some systemic things that came up and it's good to hear that there are certain programs being put in place that really address these issues. Is there anything else as far as, you know, that we would like that we should know? You know, if you folks know any veterans who might want to come out and be a part of our event please do reach out to us. You can go to our website for more information also. It's mccfhawaii.com If we have veterans service organizations who would like to reach some of these veterans and have a table to Okay, I think we may have a technical problem. It seems like it. Okay, we're good. Inhale, soon we get Deborah back anyhow. What were some of your experiences when you were in Vietnam? What was available to you when you were for morale that you could talk about on the air? The thing we appreciated the most is the mail service. And we were pretty well taken care of. They worked us to death but we did it with pretty much of a great exuberance and otherwise I don't think we would have survived. So some of us come out of it stronger a few probably didn't do so well and maybe they're still suffering today. They may got, but being on a ship, unless you were hit, there wasn't really too much trauma and there wasn't a lot of drama after you got into what your mission was and what you're supposed to be doing. It was like being in a John Wayne movie except you had a part to play and it was vital that you did your best and that's my recollection for the first ship we arrived in time to celebrate and we did that by shooting 5.54 projectiles into their ice fields and wherever we were directed in opposition to Ochi Min and his crew who wanted us out of there and took them 10 years but they finally succeeded What was the name of the ship that you were on? I was on the USS Buchanan DDG-14 and the second tour was relatively safe on the USS Kiska ammunition ship hull number AE-35 I think we're still trying to get Deborah back, but in the meantime of course being the regional president for now, you're a part of other organizations also is there anything that's going on with some of the other groups that you may be involved with as far as connection with the commemoration ceremonies that's going on for the Vietnam vets? I do not but I am they do have the World War I commemoration 100th year they have a bill in Congress and we have our local chapter here has testified in support of that bill the issue of course is funding and we have the Memorial World War I Memorial down there at the Natatorium needs to be brought back to life after how many decades of neglect? I sat in on a couple of the conferences they had and for the life of me I can't understand why they're dragging their feet on this issue I don't know if it's political or economic or a combination of both but I think for the past 50 years they have been talking about what to do with this structure so I know there's still efforts going on but whatever is happening doesn't seem to be readily shared with the veterans or the community in general what to do with the structure is what hasn't been done for 50 years, maintaining and it would be a shining example of Hawaii's dedication they were only a territory at the time and we jumped in there and I thought we did pretty good but now are new times I think a lot of people will get the misunderstanding what I think is at the Natatorium and other structures that celebrate, I would say celebrate I got to find a dictionary to find the right word anyhow that marks the involvement of the troops not only in Hawaii but around the country it's not celebrating war but it's celebrating those who were willing to go ahead to support what our system stands for you did good that's exactly we're not glorifying war we're memorializing those who went so we didn't have to go it's important for the future because if you don't know your past you don't know what your future is heading as far as down certain past anyhow we're going to take a short break and we'll continue our conversation with Mr. Eggy those who love him and I think we may be having Deborah come back on but we'll check and see what that but we'll take a short break and stay tuned to Hawaii Hi, my name is Bill Shaw our host of Asian Review coming to you from Honolulu, Hawaii right here in the center of the Pacific Ocean Asian Review is the oldest of the 35 or so shows broadcast by Think Tech Hawaii we've been in production since 2009 our goal is to provide you the viewer with information breaking information about events in Asia Asia being anything from Hawaii west of Pakistan to Asian Far East south to Australia and New Zealand we hope to see you every Monday afternoon at 5 p.m. Aloha, I'm Kili Ikeena and I'm here every other week on Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii's Hawaii Together in Hawaii Together we talk with some of the most fascinating people in the islands about working together working together for a better economy government and society talking to our conversation every other Monday at 2 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network join us for Hawaii Together I'm Kili Ikeena Aloha Hey, Aloha Stan Energyman here on Think Tech Hawaii where community matters this is the place to come to think about all things energy we talk about energy for the grid energy for vehicles, energy in transportation energy in maritime, energy in aviation we have all kinds of things on our show but we always focus on hydrogen here in Hawaii because it's my favorite thing that's what I like to do but we talk about things that make a difference here in Hawaii things that should be a big changer for Hawaii and we hope that you'll join us every Friday at noon on Stan Energyman and take a look with us at new technologies and new thoughts on how we can get clean and green in Hawaii Aloha Okay and you're back with Hawaii Uniform and again my name is Calvin Griffin and I'm one of the two special guests are Mr. Dennis Egan and Ms. Deborah Buketz who's with the UN Spring Corps during these services Debbie I'm sorry we got cut off anyhow was there anything that you of course we didn't touch on that you'd like to get out to the public Just to let us know if they'd like to be a part of offering a if you wanted to have a service organization table to share information with the vets that is good in their hands give us a call or go to our website I'm not sure if I got the website up before I got cut off or not but it's mccfhawaii.com mccfhawaii spelled out dot com and again the phone number 808-254-7679 give us a call if you have something that you think would be good to put in front of our veterans and to share with them for this event we're also we're bringing in a few commercial sponsors who make sense for the event so if you think that you have a business that would make sense to be a part of that give us a call I don't think you mentioned there's a shuttle that's available for those veterans who don't have ready access to the to the base but is there anything that's in place as far as for those who are severely handicapped that might want to be part of it is there any type of shuttle system or something that can be worked out with the some of the medical services we don't have anything like that set up at this time we did reach out to the handyman they weren't able to do anything on a chartered basis but I can certainly reach out again and see if that's something that we can make available okay yeah I just wanted to check and see because maybe some people out there might have that you know of course question about one of their relatives that may be in that position anyhow okay is there anything that we didn't share something right Debbie you are aware that we do have a Vietnam memorial on the state capital grounds ah yes yes too bad somebody didn't suggest that you do your concert there that would have been but you get another chance and the evening I think it's the day before Christmas Eve or the evening about 11 o'clock at night when the 23rd is it the 25th? 23rd in the evening is when the Vietnam vets just quietly converge on this place and they reflect and do whatever they do in view of all those from Hawaii who are memorialized there and who knows maybe a concert at that site all you'd have to do is bring the band I don't think you'd have to invite anybody they all can make their way here just a thought some of the talent you mentioned that maybe that will be at the event we are we're going to have a retired Marine who has his own band coming out and he's going to play us some rock and his name is Aaron Johnson but our main act is Anki Ray Fernandez who himself is a Vietnam veteran and he is bringing his tribute to Motown show to us so we're excited to have that here it's something that we can share with our past and present military I understand that Bob Hope of course is not available for the show he'll be there in spirit anyhow okay is there any anything else that we missed that you'd like to be of course in part to our audience about the event or again some of the things that might be available to our service members I think that that about covers it right now for this special event it's the first time we're doing something that kind of reaches outside of what our normal audience is so we're excited to welcome our Vietnam vets to the base and show them a little bit of love here we want to have everybody feel good and we certainly want to say thank you alright okay well I'd like to say thank you to you and your staff and for the Marine Corps I mean the way they're doing as far as trying to fill the needs and so many different ways for our service members that inadvertently or in the indirect way have an effect also just by setting the example about caring and sharing anyhow but again thank you very much for your service thank you so much Kevin okay we'll be in touch and we'll get the word out there a little bit more often before the event happens we certainly appreciate it thank you so much and have a great day thank you you did say okay and you're going to show up over there yeah in DC I'll be there anyhow hopefully in that way we get out there it should be a great event we'll segue into something else I know that you've been keeping an eye on what's happening legislatively what's new that's out there that's affecting our vets, military or all of us well many years ago when congresswoman Tammy Duckworth and she may be a senator by now I'm not sure if she transitioned or not and I had a conversation in her office at the veterans affairs department headquarters which is just a walk through the park to the white house can you imagine how many people know that a few but maybe not too many but anyway we discussed integrating the defense department and the veterans affairs department healthcare database okay and it took according to Tammy it took president Obama to bring the secretary of defense and the secretary of VA together to shake hands that they would do this and that's 10 years ago there wasn't any coordination before no and there still isn't now it's kind of interesting that now the VA has always used the VISTA program to record their healthcare events okay and it's been adopted and has accessible by private sector healthcare providers so there's but the military has always distanced itself and now they're asking the VA to spend billions of dollars maybe only millions okay I don't want to exaggerate too much to modify VISTA and get used to doing what the military wants them to do because if the VA is dependent on the military well I guess they are right if you're in the military and you get sick or you get injured then you go to the VA so it's like the VA is kind of like an auxiliary for the defense department what about the choice program how's it coming along have you heard anything new on that any major changes that's coming about or from what you hear is it pretty successful or is it working is the system working I'm not sure if the system is working or not because I haven't heard anybody really rave about it and I haven't heard anybody complain about it either but I do know that the VA has established an office in Ewa Beach off of Fort Weaver Road at the Queens West Hospital they have an office on the fifth floor in that building and everybody knows about it except nobody knows about it and there's no sign and I've asked the State Office of Veteran Services who are veterans advocates in this state why is this and I asked yesterday and the day before and now today but they're going to get back to me so maybe the next time we do a program here we'll know why there is no sign or we may I may drive by there I drive by on Thursdays and Sundays and I look right and I see the Queens Hospital and no VA so you're not doing a drive by you're just driving by well I'm doing a drive by because I have somewhere else to go beyond that point but I'm always interested to know when is the VA going to put their sign up and say we have an office here okay anyhow there's a lot of good programs out there it seems things are falling in place but still they disconnect about what services there who's implementing them and how to best advise our veterans about what is available anyhow we're getting down to the wire but is there anything that you want to go ahead and chair in and discuss Vietnam Warriors Bluewater Sailors Tonkin Gulf Warriors if you will why is the why are we still slow walking reinstatement of them has presumed exposed to age and orange I think we've got enough deaths and diseases now that we could say maybe we made a wrong decision when we included boots on the ground in that position and so now Bluewater they kind of have to find another way to get help from the VA when they become ill from their Vietnam experience when you get back from Washington give us an update and I'll be following through on a few things also in the future about Vietnam and some other issues that I think are a grave concern to our it's about time isn't it Vietnam 50 years ago 100 years ago World War I to where it was supposed to end all wars yeah I don't know anyhow I want to thank you Dennis I also thank Mitz Buquette for calling it and if you're available go down and check out the event on the 29th and we'll take it from there but in the meantime on the 23rd December especially if you're a Vietnam Vietnam warrior anyhow getting down to the wire again thank you very much for staying tuned and again this is Hawaii in uniform YouTube and also the other great programming here that has hosts that deal with a lot of the veterans issues but as I say God bless and until that time