Puna Geothermal Venture
Hawaii

Thursday October 25, 2007

Hearts on the home front

Soldiers, loved ones preparing for another deployment

by Peter Sur
psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
October 25, 2007

Sgt. Taylor Sumida and his fiancee, Holly Mizuno, with his pit bull pup, Polu, in their Waiakea Uka residence. Sumida has been informed he’ll be deploying to Kuwait. He previously served a 15-month tour of duty with an Army engineering unit near Baghdad in 2004-05. – William Ing/Tribune-Herald

Next summer, the Big Island will feel the pinch as some 200 National Guardsmen depart on a yearlong deployment to provide military base security in Kuwait.

The full cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom can be measured in many ways, including the cost of the war itself, civilian and coalition casualties. Harder to measure is the human cost, to the employers, children and spouses of those on duty.

Sgt. Taylor Sumida, 25, of Waiakea Uka is one such example.

Four times a week, he pulls a 12-hour shift at Puna Geothermal Venture in Pohoiki. Sumida works on one of four three-man crews that monitor the plant around the clock, 365 days a year.

It’s a technical job, which involves “monitoring all plant activities and making adjustments as needed to maintain the power output,” he said. After 13 months on the job, Sumida’s supervisor said he’s still on the learning curve.

Yet PGV, like dozens of other employers around the island, will have to make adjustments while the Guardsmen are gone.

“Either the rest of the remaining people have to fill in for him, which is added work for his colleagues,” said Plant Manager Mike Kaleikini, “or the other way, would look for temporary help. So we’d probably do a little of both.”

“He seems like an intelligent individual, and I know he’s well-liked by his colleagues,” Kaleikini said of Sumida. “And I think there’s room for him to grow.”

PGV will likely work fine without Sumida. His absence will take a bigger toll on fiancee Holly Mizuno. The couple will marry in December.

“I already knew he had to go, because when he first met me,” Mizuno said, Sumida told her, “If you decide to be with me, I will have to someday be deployed.”

This will be Sumida’s second deployment to the Middle East. A 2000 graduate of Waiakea High School (and a classmate of this writer), Sumida joined the Army Reserve “fresh out of high school.”

At the time, he said over lunch on Wednesday, “I didn’t really know what I was going to do, and I figured I’d get some education.” He was deployed to Iraq with a Hilo-based Army Reserve unit from January 2004 to April 2005.

“We did a lot of construction out there. Trying to get Iraq back on its feet,” he said.

Upon returning, he met Mizuno, started working at PGV, got engaged and, six months ago, transferred to the National Guard.

Then, last week, Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee announced that the 29th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Squadron, 299th Cavalry, would provide base security in Kuwait.

“My first thought was getting married, so I had to prepare my future wife,” Sumida said. “I was also thinking about leaving a good career here.” He said he felt bad for leaving his employer.

Mizuno, a teacher at Keonepoko Elementary School, said she was “a bit shocked” to hear of his upcoming tour.

“I do worry about it,” she said by phone, adding she tries not to think about it.

“I kind of just think of it as you never know what will happen. Bad things could happen in our civilian lives,” Mizuno said. She’s found support from the wife of another serviceman, who’s “been through it already.”

“She’s good,” Sumida said. “She’s accepted it. She wants to know what communication will be like with Internet, phone; how often I’m able to call her, stuff like that.”

Looking on the bright side, Sumida has met people on their third and fourth deployments, and considers himself “pretty lucky” for going only twice.

Sgt. 1st Class Richard Matsumoto won’t be missing any time from his job as a full-time Guardsman.

“For my family, it’s a little bit rougher,” he said. When Matsumoto deployed with the Guard in 2004, his daughter was 9 months old.

“By the time I came back, she was almost 3,” he said.

His wife is expecting again, shortly before the unit leaves.

“For her, she’s going to be raising a newborn again, all by herself,” he said.

For Matsumoto, an operations sergeant in charge of training and other activities within the unit, he’s “pretty much” ready to go.

“I still have some small things to take care of, mostly family stuff. Overall, I’d say I’m about 75-80 percent ready,” he said.