<Begin Segment 18>

TI: Okay, so after a year, you were sent back to stateside? Is that...

EW: Uh-huh, then I was reassigned to Fort Lewis, Washington, in, let's see, June 2005.

TI: And generally when you're reassigned back to the stateside, so you're out in Korea, so you're, I think it's on the line, or I guess at risk, and then you come back stateside, what was your expectation in terms of how long you would be stateside?

EW: Well, at that point, I had about a year and a half left in my active duty service obligation, and I knew that units were deploying to Iraq, Afghanistan all the time, so I knew it was more than likely I would be sent to either Afghanistan or Iraq. And sure enough, as soon as I got back, they said, "In a year's time, you're going to go to Iraq," so I said, "Okay." And I talked to my commanding officer and I told him, "You know, I'm ready, I'm ready to train my soldiers to go, and I'm prepared." So he said, "Great, okay." And I think there was, let's see... a couple months later, I had gotten word, 'cause I had applied to the Hawaiian National Guard for a pilot position, and I had been accepted. I didn't think I was going to be accepted, because really, hundreds of applicants, or hundreds of people apply, they'll only take about sixty for interviews, and then from there, they pick six. [Laugh] Six pilots, or pilot slots, and I was selected. And I find out, I found out about September '05, and at that time that I was going to be getting out of the army, that would have been perfect in terms of timing. Because of, because of my age, I had to get into flight school at a certain age, and by the time I got out of the army, that would have been perfect to transition right over into the Air Guard. But because I was going to Iraq with this unit that I was currently in, I would have been stop lossed, and that would have posed some problems.

TI: But let me back up just a little bit. So you, you had a plan to really make the military a career. I mean, to finish your time in the army, go to the Hawaii National Guard, become a pilot, and actually make this a long-term commitment.

EW: Right, 'cause the commitment for pilots is ten years, and so by that time I would have been in for thirteen years, fourteen years, so might as well just stay in -- [laughs] -- for the last six, twenty-year career. But there was going to be some kind of problem, so I went up to my commanding officer and I said, "I'm willing to volunteer to go with any unit," I knew there were a ton of units, National Guard reserve units who were short of junior officers. And I said, "I'll go with any unit that's going because I just need to get out of the active duty at a certain point so I can make it to flight school." And they said...

TI: Because the stop loss would have, would have extended --

EW: Would have extended me beyond, and that would have posed some problems. And so he said, "No, we can't do that. You're already in this unit, we can't take you out, there's going to be too many administrative difficulties." So, so at one point I had actually wanted to volunteer to go earlier into Iraq than the unit I was with, but they turned me down, and I was able to work it out with the Air Guard. They talked to the commanding general, and he, he said that they would grant me a waiver in order to go to flight school beyond my, beyond the date.

TI: Okay, so that's on the back side, the option was still there for you.

EW: Still there, yeah.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.