War and remembrance

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka was given a 2-inch-by-2-inch slice of granite used to build America’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall during a ceremony on Sunday to solicit photos and memories of Hawaii’s Vietnam-era veterans for a new education center in Washington, D.C.

Akaka accepted the square chunk of granite on the grounds of the state Capitol and gestured behind him at Hawaii’s own polished, black granite wall containing the names of 311 island military members who died in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

"I’ve always in my heart wanted the next generation to know what happened," Akaka said, pointing his thumb toward the granite wall. "The education center is something we need because it’ll keep telling the story of Vietnam."

More than 50 people attended Sunday’s rededication ceremony, including retired Air Force Tech Sgt. Luther Keahi, 85, who brought a photograph of his son, Army Pfc. Gene Luther Keahi, who died in Vietnam in 1965 while serving with the 101st Airborne Division.

Keahi uses a wheelchair and has difficulty speaking because of a tracheotomy due to throat cancer caused by exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam, he said.

On Sunday, Keahi helped place the photo next to a granite square bearing the name of his son, who died in Vietnam at the age of 19.

As a tear rolled down his face, Keahi said, "I wanted to put his photo with his name."

Many of the 18 pictures of Hawaii’s sons that were on display Sunday were already digitally sent to Washington, where plans are under way to break ground on the Education Center at The Wall in November 2012, said Jan Scruggs, who founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and presented Akaka with the piece of granite on Sunday from one of the wall’s extra panels.

When he was chairman of the Senate subcommittee on national parks, Akaka played a key role in breaking the logjam in Congress over whether to build the Education Center at The Wall, Scruggs said. But funding for the proposed, $85 million education center remains about $45 million short, he said.

For many of those in attendance, Sunday’s ceremony provided an opportunity to share their photos and memories of young men from Hawaii who died a generation ago.

Billie Gabriel, who helped organize Sunday’s event and is working on the "Hawaii Call for Photos" campaign, presented a plaque in her late brother’s name last May to Eric Arzaga, a 17-year-old first lieutenant in Farrington High School’s Army Junior ROTC program.

James Gabriel Jr., a 1956 Farrington graduate who became an Army Green Beret, was ambushed, captured and shot in the head by Viet Cong guerrillas in 1962 at the age of 24. He was the first Native Hawaiian killed in the Vietnam War. On Sunday, Arzaga pulled off his Class A garrison cap and dropped to one knee in front of Gabriel’s name etched into the granite wall.

"He inspires me," said Arzaga, a junior at Farrington who hopes to join the Air Force as an officer. "We need to make sure that our history never fades away."

Arzaga was joined by six other cadets from Farrington and three from St. Louis School who participated in Sunday’s ceremony.

For retired Marine Col. Gene Castagnetti, who served in Vietnam as a lieutenant, Sunday’s event provided another opportunity for new generations to hear the stories of the sacrifices of Hawaii’s own during times of war.

"These young people need to hear the old cliche," said Castagnetti, now director of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. "‘The price of freedom isn’t free.’"