Letter: Military takes steps to restore people’s trust

The recent announcement by the Department of Defense of an accelerated timetable to defuel the Red Hill fuel tanks is welcome news (“Defueling Red Hill planned for October under latest timeline,” Star-Advertiser, May 17).

As a critic of prior Navy leadership and familiar exaggerations of good intentions and overpromising of solutions, all disappointing and frustrating in the past, I’m encouraged — finally — with the current leadership.

Perhaps, at long last, Vice Adm. John Wade will remove the existential threat to Hawaii posed by the fuel and PFAS (forever chemicals) to our primary water source.

If the military fulfills its plan to defuel by early 2024, and, further, permanently decapacitate the facility from ever storing fuel, he will have taken a long step to restore the people’s trust in the Navy that was shattered by his predecessors.

Francis M. Nakamoto

Moanalua Valley

EXPRESS YOURSELF

>> Contact: 529-4831 (phone), letters@staradvertiser.com, staradvertiser.com/editorial/submit-letter