UH camp ‘recruits’ learn military discipline, respect

0-Dark-30 arrives early. Especially when you don’t know it’s coming. Especially when your alarm clock is a burly sergeant yelling in your face.

Even an Air Force veteran was initially stunned by the pre-dawn rude awakening foisted upon the University of Hawaii football team last week at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. UH wrapped up training camp there with a final practice Saturday.

"I was surprised," said Dale Haretuku, a 6-foot-1, 250-pound, 27-year-old defensive tackle who has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan a couple of times each and doesn’t scare easy.

"But I knew what was happening."

He was shocked, not awed.

Once fully awake, Haretuku realized it wasn’t a nightmare returning him to his first day at Lackland AFB in 2003. He’d dealt with the real thing as a teenager; he could handle this.

"His roommate, Tavita Woodard, said as soon as (Haretuku) heard the screaming and the doors pounding down the hall he got up and got ready. Didn’t say anything. Just calmly got dressed and ready to go," defensive line coach Lewis Powell said. "He just knew what was going on and what he had to do, and he did it."

IT WAS the start of a long day for some members of the team called the Warriors who got a taste of what real-life ones experience in basic training.

"A lot of the boys going through it acted out at first," Haretuku said. "Talking back at first. But by the end of the day they respected (the instructors). They began to understand what they were trying to instill in us and that it is positive."

Powell and head coach Norm Chow said Haretuku’s military experience and local knowledge of the base (he was stationed there for two years as a member of the Hawaii Air National Guard) helped immeasurably during the week.

"He was pretty instrumental in the success of this camp," Powell said. "He’s kind of behind football-wise because he hasn’t played in eight years. But you can tell the kids look up to him and they listen to him. In all our drills he wants to be first and he’s tough. He’ll bust his butt every single time."

And he does it with full realization that game action is unlikely this season.

"He’s a trooper. He knows he’s not going to play very much, but he knows his role," Chow said. "We’re very selective about walk-ons. Grades, character. He meets all our criteria and he’s a leader in his way."

HARETUKU WAS a flight electrician and crew chief in the Air Force. He already has enough college credits to be a junior in academic standing (sophomore in football) and is majoring in kinesiology.

He assured some skittish teammates they’d be safe on base.

"They were thinking we might get bombed, attacked," he said. "Being here kept all the boys on their toes."

Haretuku is a graduate of Tafuna High School in Pago Pago, American Samoa, where he played with and against former UH standouts Melila and Amani Purcell, Keith AhSoon and Larry Sauafea.

He went unrecruited, except by the military.

"It was a little bit before a lot of the colleges were recruiting (American Samoa)," he said. "The Air Force was my best option."

Upon arrival at Lackland, the tuna cannery back in Pago Pago looked really good. Anyone who says they liked basic training is either lying or crazy.

"I hated it. It stinks. Basic training is not fun. It’s humbling," Haretuku said.

But he liked the results, the feeling of confidence and team-building. Eight years ago and again last week.

"This really brought our team together even closer," he said. "Like the military, we’re very diverse. Pretty much every race is represented on this team, but there are no racial cliques. One big group of brothers."

Chow echoed the sentiments.

"This is the most diverse team in the country, and this helped us build bonds," the coach said. "This week on base went way beyond our expectations. The military guys went out of their way to help us, repeatedly.

"I hope we reciprocated by doing things the right way."

Undoubtedly, Dale Haretuku helped in that regard.

"A kid who has been to Afghanistan a couple of times is the kind of guy we want on our team," Powell said.