• Frank A. Cruz Sr. memorial scholarship award • Operation military appreciation day • Filipino veterans honored and remembered Frank A. Cruz Sr. memorial scholarship award In their regular monthly meeting on March 29 at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center in
• Frank A. Cruz Sr. memorial scholarship award
• Operation military appreciation day
• Filipino veterans honored and remembered
Frank A. Cruz Sr. memorial scholarship award
In their regular monthly meeting on March 29 at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center in Lihu‘e, the Kaua’i Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 3855, announced that an annual memorial scholarship award of $1,000 is established in memory of the late Frank A. Cruz Sr., who was a former Kaua‘i Veterans Council president and commander of Post 3855. Frank passed on Feb. 23, 2007.
This scholarship is for a child, spouse or grandchild of a Life Member, or a continuous Annual Member (living or deceased) of VFW Post 3855 for at least three years. As part of the application procedures request transcript(s) for the previous two semesters of high school or college in the last year, all full-time high school and college students are urged to contact the Kaua‘i Veterans Center at 246-1135, fax 246-6262, or contact Richard Irwin, VFW Post 3855 Project Officer, at 332-8859. Application forms are also available at the KVC center.
Deadline for all mailed-in applications is May 15 and must be at VFW Post 3855, 3441 Aeo St., Kalaheo, HI 96741, or at Kaua‘i Veterans Center, 3215 Kapule Highway, Suite 1, Lihu‘e, HI 96766, on or before the due date.
Operation military appreciation day
A family festival of events sponsored by The Sons of Hawai‘i Motorcycle Club, The Harley-Davidson Shop at Grove Farm Company and the Kaua‘i Motorcycle enthusiasts community, is scheduled for June 27 at Puhi Grove Farm Park (directly behind Kaua‘i Harley-Davidson), from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will also be a motorcycle road-tour convey from Puhi to the Westside and return, from 9 to 11 a.m. Residents who wish to participate in this convey must register at the Puhi site by 9 a.m.
The Kaua‘i Veterans Council is developing and facilitating the opening ceremonies with keynote speaker(s) and island dignitaries. Ceremonial military units in Kaua‘i will also be involved.
This is the third annual fundraising and awareness event, open to the public, and supports Kaua‘i’s military personnel on active duty, Navy and National Guard units, including reserve and military veterans throughout the island. Following the opening ceremony, the remainder of the day will be devoted to fun for the entire family with live music, prize drawings, food and multiple vendor booths, an inflatable waterslide, and a jump-around for the kids (young and old).
Local veterans’ organizations are invited to attend and participate in the day’s festivities, and are also welcome to setup informational tables to answer questions and/or recruit new member into their respective organizations.
Point of contact for the opening ceremonies: William T. Honjiyo, Tel: 808-246-1135, e-mail: billhonj@Hawai‘intel.com. For more information on the festivities contact Tony Ricci, 808-652-7140, e-mail: atmkauai@aol.com.
Filipino veterans honored and remembered
Following the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, S1315 Feb. 17, various Congress of Visayan Organizations and other Filipino communities throughout Hawai‘i are honoring Filipino veterans who fought alongside American forces in World War II in the Philippines Islands. As 2009 depicts a centennial celebration of the Visayans’ migration to Hawai‘i, it also reflects a six-decade-plus wait before the bill was signed by President Obama. Sadly, hundreds of Filipino scouts and guerillas died during and after the war, and not all of the Filipino immigrants to Hawai‘i and other locations in USA lived long enough to receive the benefits under the new law. Several are now in their 80s and 90s and a statewide outreach/search effort for their whereabouts is in progress. Several family survivors of these veterans have come forward to provide information of deceased veterans, and several Kaua‘i veterans in this WWII era did submit their application to the Office of Veterans Services in Lihu‘e. It is estimated that there are 16,000 surviving veterans — 4,000 in America and 12,000 in the Philippines.
So far, these are the service members (that we know of) who served during this period: Marcelo T. Balaba, Adulfo B. Bandarlipe, Domingo Cacal, Emeleterio S. Dacua, Jose Pagala, Jacob Silvestre, and Moises P. Ventura. Family members of deceased service veterans in this category are asked to contact Tony Hubahib (e-mail: anthonyakoni@aol.com), at 808-337-1631 or 808-246-1135, so their names can be honored and remembered in a Memoriam at the Kaua‘i Veterans Museum.
The Kaua‘i Visayan Club is holding a co-event of the centennial celebration, and in honoring the Filipino veterans on Oct. 24 at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center, from 3 to 8 p.m. Tickets at $5 per adult are being distributed for donations to cover the expenses for this event. Point of Contact and a representative of Kaua‘i Visayan Club is Evelyn Basnillo, 808-652-7249.
• Anthony Hubahib, a Waimea resident and Waimea High School graduate, began his military career in 1956 with the Air Force. He served 18 years outside the continental United States, including two tours in Vietnam. He later returned to Kaua‘i where he retired with his family after 19 years in hotel hospitality services. He writes this monthly column exclusively for The Garden Island
