The Ultimate Hawaii Team
For several former UH athletes, the discipline and camaraderie of athletics are carrying over into successful National Guard careers
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Britton Komine: Mom now
has to salute
looking forward to her hanging them up just yet.
“I out-rank her,” laughs the son who adds he hasn’t yet run into his mother while in uniform, but is looking forward to the salute she’ll have to give him.
One of the things that seems to resonate most with the Air Guard members is that it is made up of local people doing a job for local people.
“You’re defending the community you live in, and the harder you work to alleviate any disasters, the quicker your community gets back on its feet,” says Gen. Wong. “And the person you’re helping is your neighbor.”
And though it is nice to help the state and serve the nation, sometimes it’s the smaller things that make it special.
“The guard is like a family,” says 1st. Lt. Victor Talamoa, (volleyball, 1989-94). “We all have common ground. It’s real nice to talk to everybody and to share common memories.”
Lt. Col Dal Wong: ‘It’s the
discipline’
However nice and fuzzy all this sounds, don’t make the mistake thinking the Air Guard is an easy alternative to other military service. The job can be hard, the training stressful and success not guaranteed. So you have to be prepared.
“A lot of kids don’t have goals,” says Talamoa, a Kamehameha Schools grad. “If you have an idea what you want to do, you can find someone who can help you out. That was big for me, having someone to help me when I was going to high school.”
Talamoa said his church pastor provided that early guidance and inspiration, but said it can come from anywhere. Even members of the guard itself who at one time was, well a guard.
Though 5 feet 5 inches tall and being a female in a male dominated occupation, Itoman does-n’t see herself as a trailblazer or anything special.
“I don’t think of it that way,” said the pilot. “I’m just happy to be able to do what I do. If other people see it that way and it gives them hope that someone little and a woman can do it, I think that it’s great. But I don’t think about it as much as other people do.”
While nothing can compare to performing in front of thousands of enthusiastic supporters, these former standouts have discovered that the Air Guard is a pretty darn good substitute.
“You still perform,” said Col. Wong. “There is still an audience out there whether its crammed into the Stan Sheriff Center or Aloha Stadium, or out here. You’re still measured by your performance.”
The key word here being performance. Especially for those who get the rare opportunity to fly.
“Flying fighters is like the ultimate roller coaster ride,” says Col. Wong. “I don’t think anything else can beat it. There are no constraints. You’re 360 degrees in every direction.”
Although happy with their current careers and excited about what comes next, it’s hard to let go of the past.
Komine still gets excited when talking about the Warriors win versus Fresno State during his sophomore year, and says his first solo flight will not be as exciting as his first touchdown.
Lt. Victor Talamoa: the
Guard is like a big family
Gen. Wong disagrees. “Let’s see how he feels when he has millions of dollars worth of jet underneath him.”
Itoman, who firmly states the guard is now her passion, still recalls with fondness her time at UH.
“My most memorable time at UH was sharing the summers with a lot of my teammates who had that passion for basketball, the same passion that I did,” she says.
“We loved it so much that we played hours of pickup ball. Just dripping with sweat, then have a Slurpy, then sitting down and enjoying it. How hard we played and how much fun it was! During that time it was just 100 percent complete fun.”
It’s that combination of excitement and hard work that attracted these athletes to a career in the guard.
And no matter where they go, they will take what their coaches and teammates imprinted on them: that success occurs after you push through what you thought were your limitations and rely on the skill of those around you. After all, the game of life is a team sport.
“Coach (Dick) Tomey was big on team play to be successful,” says Col. Ronald P. Han Jr. (football, 1979-80), “much like how we are interlinked in our functions in the Hawaii Air National Guard. Every member and every function is vital and must work together for mission success.”
Their coaches would be proud. So should we all.
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