Fa'Afetai
Mr. Speaker, last October 2013, because of complications due to Agent Orange exposure during my service in Vietnam, I was airlifted from American Samoa to Hawaii where I was not expected to live. Thanks to the prayers offered and the…
Mr. Speaker, last October 2013, because of complications due to Agent Orange exposure during my service in Vietnam, I was airlifted from American Samoa to Hawaii where I was not expected to live. Thanks to the prayers offered and the assistance provided on my behalf at a time when I needed it most, I am here today. And so, for historical purposes, I rise to express my gratitude for all those involved in making my evacuation and recovery possible, and to say thank you to the people of American Samoa for giving me the opportunity to serve them in the U.S. House of Representatives from the time they first elected me in 1988 until 2014.
At about 2:30 p.m. Washington, DC time (7:30 a.m. in Pago Pago), on October 24, 2013, my staff in Washington, DC released an official statement informing the people of American Samoa that I had been hospitalized at the LBJ Tropical Medical Center (LBJ) on October 22, 2013. My Washington team learned of my hospitalization on October 23, 2013 through Fili Sagapolutele, a local reporter in American Samoa. Upon learning of my hospitalization, my staff in Washington, DC immediately sought a first-hand assessment of my condition and facilitated a conference call on October 23, 2013 between Dr. Rahim Remtulla of the Office of Attending Physician at the U.S. House of Representatives and medical officer (M.O.) Jerome Amoa who was supervising my care at LBJ. In American Samoa, medical officers are spoken of as doctors and, out of respect and appreciation for the care he provided me, I also use the local terminology when referring to Dr. Amoa, who recently passed away. Dr. Amoa was a true servant of our people and I am forever thankful for him. During his conference call with my staff, Dr. Amoa reported that LBJ did not have the equipment necessary to provide further evaluation of my condition and that a medical evacuation (medevac) was needed. He also reported that I was stable for travel and was not in a life-threatening situation. Because commercial flights from American Samoa only fly to and from Hawaii twice a week, Dr. Amoa stated that he had requested medevac services through the American Samoa Government (ASG) and the local Veterans Administration (VA) in the Territory but that no action had yet been taken due to some confusion about whether or not ASG should request the medevac or if the local VA should since I am a Vietnam veteran. Due to these delays, my Washington staff contacted General Robert Lee, former Adjutant General of the State of Hawaii, who contacted Major General Darryll Wong, the Adjutant General for the State of Hawaii who oversees the Hawaii Air National Guard and who provides direct support to the Office of Veterans Affairs. Based on letters my office obtained from Dr. Amoa and the Office
of Attending Physician, which stated that medevac services were essential, my Washington staff registered a request for medevac services through Colonel Ronald Han, Director of the State of Hawaii's Office of Veterans Services. Colonel Han, General Wong and Governor Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii acted with urgency and immediacy. Within 30 minutes of receiving the request, General Wong and his team put a crew into crew rest to prepare for the medevac flight. In less than 2 hours, General Wong informed my Washington staff that an aircraft would leave Honolulu (HNL) at approximately 8 a.m. on Thursday, October 24, 2013, with a doctor, nurse and aero-medical evacuation team in place. My Washington office then began the process of linking the Office of Attending Physician to the aero-medical evacuation team as well as to physicians at Tripler Army Medical Center (Tripler) so that I could be treated in the air and upon arrival at Tripler without delay. After taking these actions on October 23, 2013 and October 24, it was then that my office issued a press release on October 24, 2013 at about 2:30 p.m. Washington, DC time (7:30 a.m. in Pago Pago) announcing that a medevac team would depart from Hawaii at about 8 a.m. Honolulu time on Thursday, October 24, 2013, with scheduled landing in American Samoa the same day at about 1:00 p.m. Pago Pago time. On October 24, 2013, at approximately 5 p.m. DC time (10 a.m. in Pago Pago), while the medevac was already en route to American Samoa, my Washington staff learned in another conference call between Dr. Amoa and Dr. Remtulla that my condition had worsened and that my situation was now critical. When the medevac team reached me, they did not know if I would make it to Tripler alive, but I did and, on behalf of my family, I want to thank everyone involved in my rescue. I thank Governor Lolo Moliga and Lieutenant Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga for the measures they instituted to provide me with the best chance for evacuation and recovery. I also thank the local police department in American Samoa for their fine work, and the late Dr. Amoa and his staff for the care they provided. I also express appreciation to the Office of Attending Physician, including Dr. Brian Monahan and Dr. Rahim Remtulla, who offered extraordinary assistance and support. I thank the Pacific Air Force's 613th Air Operations Center/Air Mobility Division and all its components and especially its Aero-medical Evacuation Team, Theatre Patient Movement Requirements Center, and Joint Patient Liaison Office, and the Hawaii Air National Guard maintenance and flight crew for their professionalism and expertise. These heroic men and women went for broke to rescue me. From the planning, execution, coordination down to the aircrew and maintenance personnel and everyone involved, they delivered me to Tripler in better condition than they found me. Upon my arrival at the HNL airport, a true Joint Force team of Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel was on the tarmac ready to transfer me from the airport to Tripler. Even after I was offloaded, the aircraft maintenance men and women worked into the night to offload equipment and bed down the jet. Neither my office nor I expected or requested this kind of outpouring of support. But given the care and love shown for me by our military men and women, I salute the service of all involved. Although words can never express how grateful I am, I would like to honor those who assisted by including their names in the Congressional Record: 613 Air Operations Center/Air Mobility Division Aero-Medical Evacuation Team: Lt Col Christine Thrasher, MSgt Gregory Moore, TSgt Christine Hill, TSgt Eric Hammerstrom, SSgt Jerry Marquez, SSgt Brittani McClure; 613 Air Operations Center/Air Mobility Division: Senior Director Lt Col Henry Fairtlough, Major John Lewis, Mr. Paul McDaniel, Major Patrick McClintock; Theater Patient Movement Requirements Center: Col Michael Martin, Maj Joseph Reno, Maj Cynthia Mandac-Clark, Maj Jacob Smith, Capt Amy Sivils, Lt Stephen Meyers, SSgt Maria Velasquez, Sgt Johnny Reynolds, Maj Ryan Gibbons, Maj Kirk Smith, Maj Jacob Smith; JPLO/Joint Patient Liaison Office (members that met the aircraft and transferred me into the ambulance and then to Tripler): HM2 Morgan Orton, Capt Michael Bringas, HM2 Isaac Kargbo, TSgt Delbert Smith; 613 Air Operations Center/Air Mobility Division Mission: Mangers MS. Mary Ann Chock, Mr. David Avigdor, Mr. Jeffrey Frye; 613 Air Operations Center/Air Mobility Division Airlift: Mr. Mark Salondaka, Mr. Matt Mustafaga; 613 Air Operations Center/Air Mobility Division Flight Managers: Mr. Myron Jones, Ms. Eileen Aina, Mr. Stephen Mather, Mr. Rick Dittmer; 613 Air Operations Center/Air Mobility Division Logistics: Mr. Paul Pang, Mr. Walter You, Mr. Ricky Davis; Hawaii Air National Guard: Major General Darryll Wong, Col Rob Hoffman (109th Air Operations Group Commander), Col Duke A. Pirak (154th Operations Group Commander), flight crew members: Capt Kellen Brede, Capt Liliukekulakamaile ``Kula'' Cummings, Capt William Kealaiki, MSgt Kevin Kalani, MSgt Denny Yoshikawa, TSgt Bronson Abellanida, TSgt Callen Cordeiro, TSgt Sterling Nakamura. I also thank Col Paul A. Friedrichs, Pacific Air Forces Command Surgeon and the medical personnel at Pacific Regional Medical Command and Tripler; including Dr. Osborn, Dr. Donald Helman, Dr. Jone Geimer-Flanders and the many other doctors, nurses and personnel who attended to my well-being. I pay special tribute to General Wong who coordinated every detail of my evacuation. I thank him for his leadership, kindness, expertise, for his calm in the eye of a storm, for his compassion, commitment, and faith. Through emails and phone calls, General Wong stayed in direct contact with my Washington staff every step of the way. He worked around the clock, and I publicly express my appreciation to him. I also publicly thank General Robert Lee, former Adjutant General for the State of Hawaii, whose quick action led to my rescue. Bob Lee is my brother and always will be. I also thank General Dennis Doyle, Commanding General of Tripler; Colonel Ronald Han; M. John Condello, Veterans Services Coordinator for the State of Hawaii; and members of their staff. I also thank Hawaii VA Director Wayne L. Pfeffer for the quality service he provides our veterans in Hawaii and American Samoa. I also thank Protocol Officer Joel Jenkins who cared for my family and worked with my staff on my behalf. I thank Tracey A. Betts, Director of the Honolulu VA Regional Office, for her tireless efforts. I also thank Captain Findley and those involved in my medical evacuation from Tripler to Travis Air Force Base in California, including the flight crew, and the doctors and nurses and medical personnel at the VA Medical Center in Palo Alto who also aided in my recovery. I recognize Mr. Scott Skiles who served as Liaison for my Congressional office and family while I was at the VA Palo Alto. I pay special tribute to my dear friends, Chairman Li Ka Shing and Ms. Solina Chau, for their visionary philanthropy that includes the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge at the Stanford School of Medicine, which provides services for our veterans at the VA Palo Alto. I thank Chairman Li and Ms. Chau for caring about America's veterans and for the quiet service they offered on my behalf, which strengthened my family and me during difficult days. I also thank the Stanford Medical team that worked with me. I am also appreciative of the medical staff and personnel at Walter Reed.
I thank my colleagues--both Republicans and Democrats--in the House and Senate for their prayers. We have worked together in close cooperation for many years and I will always be grateful for their steadfast friendship as well as their constant support of the initiatives I put forward for the benefit of the people of American Samoa. I particularly thank Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. We came to know each other through Congressman Phil Burton, who was like a father to me. Leader Pelosi and I have been family since our Burton days, and I am grateful that she has been a part of my life for all these years. I am also very proud that she became the first woman in U.S. history to serve as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. To my friends from around the world, including leaders and diplomats from Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Taiwan, Korea, China, India, Hong Kong and elsewhere, I also express my gratitude for their support and well wishes. I thank the pastors, priests, parishioners, and also those of my own faith who offered prayers and fasted on my behalf, including Elder Paul Pieper and Elder Gerrit Gong of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Above all, I thank God. I know God loves us. We are His children. From the place of His habitation, He looks down from heaven upon all the inhabitants of the earth (Psalms 33:14), and He hears and answers our prayers. He does so in His own way and in His own time, as the object of prayer ``is not to change the will of God but to secure blessings for ourselves or others that God is already willing to grant but are made conditional on our asking for them.'' I know I am alive today because of prayer and because my appointed days are not yet (Job 14:5). But when my appointed time does come, I will return home to the God who made me with gratitude for the many blessings--especially my family, friends and associates--that He so richly bestowed upon me in this life. I will go, knowing that if a man die he shall live again according to the promise of our Lord (Job 14:14). Whether I go soon or stay for a while, I hope, like Gandhi, my life will be my message. Having grown up in the small village of Vailoatai in American Samoa and having graduated from Kahuku High School in Hawaii, I will always be grateful to the people of American Samoa for the opportunity they gave me to serve them. I thank the late Paramount Chief A.U. Fuimaono, who served as American Samoa's first elected Representative to Washington, DC, for giving me the opportunity to serve as his Chief of Staff from 1973 to 1975. I will always be thankful for all that he taught me. I am also
thankful for the late Congressman Phil Burton, former Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Territorial and Insular Affairs, who I served with from 1975 to 1981. During my service as his Staff Counsel, he tasked me with drafting legislation providing for an elected Governor and Lieutenant Governor in American Samoa. Congressman Burton introduced the legislation on June 10, 1976, which the U.S. House of Representatives passed by a landslide vote of 377 to 1. The historical proceedings and debates of the 94th Congress, Second Session related to this legislation were made part of the Congressional Record in Volume 122-Part 18, July 1, 1976 to July 21, 1976 (Pages 21785 to 23276). After the legislation passed the House, instead of sending the bill to the Senate for a vote, Chairman Burton consulted with Secretary of the Interior Rogers C.B. Morton and the two agreed that a Secretariat Order should be issued authorizing the American Samoa Government to pass enabling legislation to provide for an elected Governor and Lieutenant Governor. Secretariat Order No. 3009 was issued on September 13, 1977 in accordance with the will of the majority of voters in American Samoa who voted in favor of electing their own Governor and Lieutenant Governor in a plebiscite that was held on August 31, 1976. Chairman Burton also tasked me with drafting legislation providing for American Samoa to be represented in the U.S. Congress by a Delegate to the House of Representatives. Chairman Burton introduced this legislation, which later became Public Law 95-556, Oct. 31, 1978-92 Stat. 2078. The historical proceedings and debates of the 95th Congress, Second Session related to this legislation were made part of the Congressional Record in Volume 124-Part 25, October 3, 1978 to October 6, 1978 (Pages 33129 to 34486). I will always be thankful for the opportunity I had to participate in such an historic undertaking for and on behalf of the people of American Samoa.
After I completed my service with Congressman Phil Burton, the late Senate President Paramount Chief Letuli Toloa encouraged me to come home and ``eat the dust and walk on the rocks'' or, as he put it, ai le pefu ma savali le ma'ama'a, meaning come home and more fully feel the suffering and pain of our people so that I might serve them more completely. I followed his advice and served the people of American Samoa as Deputy Attorney General from 1981 to 1984, and as Lieutenant Governor from 1985 to 1988. As I look back over my life, had I not returned to American Samoa to live and serve among our people, it would have been impossible for the people to have entrusted me to represent their interests for nearly four decades. Because of their faith in me, I became the first Asian Pacific American in U.S. history to serve as Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. This was an unexpected honor and an honor that belongs only to the people of American Samoa, not to me. When I left for Vietnam in 1967, I was uncertain if I would return alive. By the grace of God, I did return and went on to serve in the Army Reserve as a Captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps and as a proud member of the 100 Battalion 442 Infantry Reserve Unit, Honolulu, Hawaii. By God's grace, I returned to Vietnam in 2007, for the first time in nearly 40 years after having served in Nha Trang as a young soldier at the height of the Tet Offensive. I returned in my official capacity as Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment and, in returning, I found a people I love. This is why I have repeatedly called for the United States to clean up the mess it left behind and do right by the victims of Agent Orange. I was not aware of the many side effects caused by Agent Orange exposure but, now that I know, I urge anyone exposed to seek treatment. Agent Orange is a silent killer. From 1961 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed more than 11 million gallons of Agent Orange in Vietnam, exposing millions of civilians and soldiers to dioxin, a toxic contaminant known to be one of the deadliest chemicals made by man. I was exposed during my service in Nha Trang. Like hundreds of thousands of veterans in the U.S. and Vietnam, I suffer from the side effects of Agent Orange, including heart and kidney disease. Sadly, many veterans and civilians have lost their lives because of Agent Orange exposure, and many more continue to suffer from its debilitating effects. Before it is too late, it is my sincere hope that the U.S. government will do its part to rectify this problem, and I hope that my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives will lead the way.
After serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for all these years, I now go forward with faith. In doing so, I again express my love for the people of American Samoa. I thank them for the opportunity they gave me to wear out my life in their service, and I hope I will be remembered for doing my best. As I begin a new chapter, I thank my staff in American Samoa, especially Faiivae Alex Godinet, as well as my Washington, DC staff, including Dr. Lisa Williams, Vili Le'i, Tavita Richmond, Leilani Pimentel, Ta'afili Sagapolutele and Jennifer Elliott. I thank them for their loyalty and dedication to me, to this institution and to the people of American Samoa. I also thank other members of my staff who served with me in the past and present, and I also recognize Cari Schemm and Cathy Barnhardt whose work I have relied on and appreciated. At this time, I pay special tribute to my wife, Antonina Hinanui Cave Hunkin. I am forever grateful that Hina is my companion in this life and in the life to come. I thank her for standing by my side during my recovery and throughout my many years of service. I love and appreciate her, and I always will. Hina and I express our profound love for our children and their spouses: Temanuata Jessie Tuilua'ai Hunkin and her husband Michael Laussen, Taualaitufanuaimeaatamali'i O'rereao Hunkin and her husband Fredrick Kolotau Vaitu'ulala, Nifae Ra'imana David Hunkin and his wife Malia Ana Jacqueline Rivera, Vaimoana Kealoha Hunkin, Leonne Lia'ina Hunkin and her husband Taufui-e-valu Vakapuna. We also express our love for our grandchildren: Tutehau Jeremiah Torres Hunkin, Leonne Kilisitinakolokiholeva Leigoanaimanuifa'alava Vaitu'ulala, Tamatoa Eni Nakita Vaitu'ulala, Feletiliki Kolotau Sebastiani Vaitu'ulala, Kenzo Kiyozo Nagashima Banno Vaitu'ulala, Taimana Kenese Rivera Hunkin, Taiatea Hinanui Rivera Hunkin, Maiana Vei Hina Taimalietane Vakapuna, and those yet to come. We pay tribute to our late parents, Eni Fa'auaa Hunkin and Taualaitufanuaimeaatamali'i Manu, and David Montague Cave and Georgina Popoua Bambridge. We also extend our love to my sisters, Dr. Salusalumalomamealeleimoleatunu'u Hunkin-Finau, Masinaatoa Magalei, my brother Albert, as well as my siblings Tuilua'ai, Arlene, and Taulauniumaituitagata who have since passed away. We also express our love for my sister Diane, my late sister Suzie, my late brother Felise, and Hina's brothers--Victor Dwight Cave and the late Dexter Buton Cave--as well as our extended families on this side and the other side of the veil. Hina and I believe that the best is yet to come. Until we meet again, Fa'afetai ma ia Soifua.