Olds returns home to see pal Gayagas receive honor

Retired Army Col. Bill Olds, 73, who grew up in Kailua and now lives in Las Vegas when he is not working in Afghanistan, was home for a short visit last week. Olds came to see one of his best friends and fellow Vietnam War vet Ed Gayagas, 74, receive the University of Hawaii Distinguished Alumni Award May 14 at the Sheraton.

Gayagas, originally from Kapaa, Kauai, is an active community service volunteer, devoting much of his time to UH. He is also a retired colonel. He and Olds were in the same fraternity and on the UH basketball team together.

Upon graduation — Olds in ’63 and Gayagas in ’62 — they were commissioned in the regular Army. Both served in Vietnam and were reunited when then-Capt. Olds was wounded and evacuated to a military hospital where then-Capt. Gayagas was the logistics officer. Both served 30 years in the Army.

For seven years Olds has been a counterterrorism mentor for the Afghan National Police and the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Command. He speaks Arabic, which he learned in the Army. Olds, Kailua High 1957, is married to the former Merriam Matook of the Alfred Shaheen fashion family. Gayagas, Kapaa High 1957, is married to the former Norma Souza …

DOLBY EXEC Stuart Bowling was in town last week to unveil the new Dolby Atmos sound system for the Titan XC theater at Ward Stadium. Consolidated Theatres Regional Manager Rod Tengan and Projection and Sound Director John Sittig took part. Bowling did most of the talking and showed invited guests two short films using the new sound system. I was most impressed when a helicopter crossed from left to right on the large screen and the sound crossed the screen right along with the copter instead of coming from one spot and totally enveloping the theater.

Guests were then treated to a preview showing of "Star Trek Into Darkness." The roar of explosions, spaceships and weapons fire in the action picture came through the new sound system loud and clear — really loud …

OSCAR WINNER Kevin Spacey was on hand to congratulate Kailua Intermediate eighth-grader Michael-Logan Jordan, 14, and ‘Iolani sophomore Brittany Amano, 15, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., May 5 for being named Hawaii’s top two youth volunteers for 2013 by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program. Each received $1,000.

Jordan, who suffers from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, has donated his birthday gifts for the past eight years to children in need, collected Christmas cards, clothing and other items for wounded soldiers, and raised more than $10,000 for the National Arthritis Foundation. Amano founded a nonprofit organization that has assisted the needy in her community and as far away as Africa.

The next day, Jordan was named one of America’s top 10 youth volunteers by the Prudential Foundation and received a $5,000 personal award and a $5,000 grant for the nonprofit charity of his choice …

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Ben Wood, who sold newspapers on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things. Email him at bwood@staradvertiser.com.