Page 4 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - May 3, 2023

4 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK MAY 3, 2023
Okamura Answers Call To Serve At Joint Task Force-Red Hill
FROM PAGE 3
Okamura, at left, then-commander of Joint Task Force-Guantanamo, presents Lt. Justin Feeney with a plaque signifying his promotion to the rank of captain. At right is Maj. Michael Monaghan, the commanding officer of Marine Security Forces — the unit responsible for protecting Naval Station Guantanamo Bay from external threats. PHOTO COURTESY LANCE OKAMURA
first task: to lead Joint Task Force-Guantanamo as its com- mander.
extremely service-oriented, productive and successful at what he does. In essence, he shines as a man in uniform and relishes his role in the military.
a bitter taste in his young son’s mouth.
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Latter-day Saints in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia — a period in which he began to find his purpose and focus on things that really mattered.
and serve his country were the terrorist attacks on 9/11. As he explains, “It made me realize that there’s something more important than just me.”
tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, the former military police offi- cer has also been deployed in support of operations such as Enduring Freedom, Operation Noble Eagle and the Hurricane Floyd Disaster Relief Mission.
He describes his time at Git- mo, the well-known detention camp located in Cuba, as “chal- lenging, but one that I enjoyed immensely.” Responsible for the safety and general welfare of detainees awaiting trial or being prepared for transfer to another country, Okamura is proud of his track record of providing “humane and legal care to those who were under our care and custody.”
“That’s when you really learn the values of sacrifice and service. You’re on your own, for all intents and purposes, and there’s no person telling you what to do, what to say,” he explains. “At the same time, you have a goal of providing service to the people that you’re living with. Those two years of serving overseas were like humanitarian service, and I was like, ‘Wow! Now this is something I truly enjoy.’ It brought meaning to my life.”
Since then, he’s continued to display selflessness and excel wherever he has been asked to serve. His past strategic-level staff assignments include ap- pointments as National Intel- ligence Support Team com- mander and joint operations officer for the chairman’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Director of In- telligence, chief of counter-ter- rorism programs for Special Operations Command Pacific, deputy director for the Joint In- teragency Coordination Group and director for the Office of FBI-Military Affairs Count- er-Terrorism at U.S. Pacific Command. Aside from his
After two decades of com- plete dedication to the U.S. Army, Okamura was finally prepared to retire in 2015. Even when he was offered the rank of general, he initially de- clined the promotion because he felt it was time to support his wife, Tracy, and her career as an FBI agent.
He’s also honest about how he was pegged for this particu- lar assignment:
Following his return from a church mission and a sub- sequent heart-to-heart with his father about his future, Okamura made up his mind: Serving in the military would suit him just fine.
But after talking things over with her (“She basically told me, ‘You’re an idiot. Take the general officer promotion,” he recalls with a laugh), Okamu- ra reconsidered and accepted the advancement offer. His
“One of the reasons why I was selected to be the com- manding general down in Joint Task Force-Guantanamo was
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Still, he hasn’t always felt love for the armed forces. In fact, as the son of a career U.S. Air Force airman, he actually had contempt for the service early on.
“Growing up, I would often ask, ‘Why is my dad gone?’” recalls Okamura. “There was this level of animosity I had to- ward the military because they were taking my father away. As a result of my father not being there, I saw all the hardships my mother (Viola) had to en- dure caring for my sister.”
He chose the U.S. Army — a decision based on his favor- able impression of “a poster of a paratrooper jumping out of an airplane ... looking really tough and strong” and believ- ing “that’s for me ... that’s what I need to do.”
The genesis of his disdain began soon after Okamura’s older sister contracted measles encephalitis and suffered brain damage. To assist, the U.S. Air Force promised his father, Neil, that it would no longer move his family from place to place but permanently set- tle them in Hawai‘i, where all the necessary support services would be available for his dis- abled daughter. Yet as part of this arrangement, the elder Okamura would be obligated to serve yearlong hardship tours elsewhere in the world, and this order would have to be fulfilled every three years.
Those feelings were only exacerbated while enrolled at Kamehameha Schools in the ’80s, when Okamura dis- covered there was mandatory participation in its Junior Re- serve Officers’ Training Corps program. Grudgingly, he went along with it, but by the time of graduation, he wanted no part of continued military in- volvement.
Yet despite entering ba- sic training and airborne school, and later returning to BYU-Provo to, in part, join its ROTC program, his intention was to keep his total time in the military brief. Okamura gave it “four to six years in the U.S. Army” — tops.
E 4 Needless to say, the deal left
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hat convinced Okamura to re- main in uniform
Instead, he chose to pur- sue business management at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Eventually, he interrupted his studies to serve a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of
“I figured (the military) was just a means to an end,” con- fesses Okamura, who received his commission in 1995. “Now some 28 years later, I’m still here.”
But as he found out, best- laid plans often go awry.
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