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COURTESY PHOTO
Entertainer and activist Tommy D died Sunday, two days after having heart surgery.
Tommy D – Hawaii musician, celebrity tribute artist, Vietnam War veteran, community activist and outspoken advocate of veterans’ rights – died Sunday at his home in Kapahulu after returning home Friday following surgery for heart problems at the Queen’s Medical Center. He was 71.
Johnny Fortuno, Waikiki showroom veteran and a long-time friend, remembered him as “the most loyal person you’d meet. He had the heart of a child, no matter how bad his circumstances may have been.”
Born Thomas Drews in Dunnellon, Fla., Tommy D was an orphan and grew up in foster homes.
He said years later that he volunteered for military service in Vietnam because many of his friends who had families were being drafted and since he had no family he thought he should go with them.
He served with the 196th Light Infantry in Vietnam where he earned the Vietnam Service Medal with two bronze stars, the Vietnam Campaign Medal with two bronze stars and the Combat Infantryman Badge. While participating in Operation Cedar Falls in January 1967, he was so badly wounded while attempting to rescue another solider under fire that he was not expected to survive the flight from the battlefield to the field hospital.
When he learned years later that the soldier who had pulled him to safely had also survived the war, he gave the man and his wife an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii.
In Hawaii, he was universally known as Tommy D. He played rock ‘n’ roll as the leader of Tommy D & The Delinquents and then with the D-Band. He also worked in Waikiki portraying Roy Orbison in the original production of “Legends in Concert” and then in a locally-produced knock-off, “Aloha Las Vegas.”
Tommy D, who would have turned 72 on Sept. 26, was a passionate advocate of veterans’ rights and spoke out forcefully against mismanagement within the Veterans Administration, and a general lack of services for veterans, years before it became a prominent political issue. He responded with similar intensity when the City & County of Honolulu announced plans to reduce service and eliminate bus routes in Honolulu.
He was also known for his interest in tai chi and the ukulele.
Tommy D is survived by his daughter Linda Yamada and son-in-law Russell Yamada.
Plans for a celebration of life are pending.
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