History of a sister service

(Capt. Kirsten Udd is a public affairs officer at Pacific Air Forces Headquarters at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii.)

Purple. It’s not just my favorite color, it’s also the term used to describe the joint world in which our Armed Forces now operate. Everyone has to work together to get the job done. This is not just some sappy, feel-good, or seasonal sentiment; it’s something I believed before I joined the service. So, here are some of the things that an Air Force officer learned about the history of a sister service...

Tuesday morning I had the honor of attending a ceremony at Central Pacific Bank in downtown Honolulu. The event highlighted some amazing U.S. Army veterans, specifically the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 100th Infantry Battalion, and 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion. A friend had told me a little about the history of the 442nd, but the beautiful museum-quality displays enhanced the story with actual weapons, photos and memorabilia from the era.



These men were awarded the designation of honorary Texans because they rescued the Texas boys of the “Lost Battalion” (just one of many feats of bravery). I chatted with one veteran who described the “Banzai charge, basically a suicidal charge which, in this case, saved the lives of their fellow soldiers. The regiment’s motto became “Go For Broke” as a result of this rescue.

He went on to describe the sound the troops feared most: a Panzer round that made no noise (when the artillery made a whistling sound they knew it was going over their heads). He described grenades that were so heavy that the soldiers risked injury if they tried to hurl them with any degree of power, the men learned to lob then underhanded instead.

These Japanese-Americans were fighting for America in an era where, not only was their loyalty questioned because of their heritage, but Japanese families were interred for National Security reasons. These Japanese-Americans veterans are a special group called “Nisei”, the generation born of children born to Japanese immigrants. I learned from Wikipedia that the term has its roots in the Japanese numeral system. One is “ichi”, two is “ni”, and “san” is three. Hence the children are Nisei and the grandchildren are Sansei.




I hope you learned something new and increased your awareness of Hawai’i’s rich military heritage. You can read more about these heroes at http://nisei.hawaii.edu/page/home.