Hotel for service personnel among Inouye's quiet deeds

By Ben Wood

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 21, 2012

~~NO HAWAII political leader has done more for the islands than Sen. Dan Inouye. The Democratic senator and Medal of Honor recipient for his World War II heroics with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team died Monday at 88. Dan's national prominence took off when he stood out as a member of the U.S. Senate's select committee in 1973's Watergate hearings that brought down President Richard Nixon. I made my first visit to Washington during the hearings to see a friend and visited Dan's office. It was our first meeting and he was kind enough to take me to the hearings one day. I will never forget the media rushing him on our arrival with flashbulbs popping wildly. It was rock star time.
I had a few unexpected meetings with him over the years. A significant one was in 2007 when former Army chief of staff, the late Gen. Fred Weyand, who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, was being honored for getting the Hale Koa Hotel built in 1975 for service personnel. Weyand, who commanded the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam, wanted to make it possible for service personnel in Asia and elsewhere to have a hotel room in Waikiki they could afford for R & R with their families and loved ones. Weyand credited his friend Dan for helping to make it happen and said the Hawaii senator's "fingerprints and handprints" were all over it. The hotel was built with PX funds; it didn't cost taxpayers a dime. The second tower went up in 1995. The Hale Koa is one of many important things Dan was involved with that were not well known.
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NO HAWAII political leader has done more for the islands than Sen. Dan Inouye. The Democratic senator and Medal of Honor recipient for his World War II heroics with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team died Monday at 88. Dan's national prominence took off when he stood out as a member of the U.S. Senate's select committee in 1973's Watergate hearings that brought down President Richard Nixon. I made my first visit to Washington during the hearings to see a friend and visited Dan's office. It was our first meeting and he was kind enough to take me to the hearings one day. I will never forget the media rushing him on our arrival with flashbulbs popping wildly. It was rock star time.

I had a few unexpected meetings with him over the years. A significant one was in 2007 when former Army chief of staff, the late Gen. Fred Weyand, who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, was being honored for getting the Hale Koa Hotel built in 1975 for service personnel. Weyand, who commanded the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam, wanted to make it possible for service personnel in Asia and elsewhere to have a hotel room in Waikiki they could afford for R & R with their families and loved ones. Weyand credited his friend Dan for helping to make it happen and said the Hawaii senator's "fingerprints and handprints" were all over it. The hotel was built with PX funds; it didn't cost taxpayers a dime. The second tower went up in 1995. The Hale Koa is one of many important things Dan was involved with that were not well known. Login for more...