I was born on May 21, 1949, in Honolulu, Hawaii. I am the fifth of seven children born to my biological parents. My childhood seemed normal and carefree to me.  I mean, c’mon…growing up in Hawaii was unbelievable. I attended Kamehameha Schools for 12 years,  where I performed well academically and athletically. I joined a few school clubs. I had quite a few close friends during that time, and we spent much of our time playing many different sports. Mostly surfing, baseball, outrigger canoe padding teams, free diving. I also had a few hobbies during those formative years. For instance, I played ukulele and guitar, and as a young kid, learned the ways of my Hawaiian ancestors. In Hawaii, cultural education starts at an early age. I was never sick, never had any broken bones, and was pretty much healthy. I remember my mother being very protective of me. She always made sure I was safe and not surrounded by trouble. It all seemed pretty normal to me.

   During high school I was actively involved in athletics. Canoe Teams, baseball and track consumed a lot of my time. I also discovered girls, and along with my friends we would do a lot in order to impress them. For example, when I got my driver’s license I would borrow my parents car so that I could cruise Ala Moana beach so that the girls would see me driving. Also, during this time I expressed a lot of interest in the Armed Forces, especially the Marine Corps. My Dad was a Marine who fought in the Pacific during WWII. The word miracle doesn’t even apply, in terms of understanding how he survived. He never talked about it at all. All I knew was that he was at Tarawa, Iwo, Guadalcanal, Pelelieu. I figured that after all that, I guess there wouldn’t be too much to say. It wasn’t until I was about to ship out to Vietnam, when he told me a couple stories. I guess he wanted me to kinda have a head’s up to what I was in for. I was going into the Marines, for chrissakes. We both knew I was going to fight.

    Besides, I loved the uniforms and the girls seemed to like them as well. I was young and impressionable. My thinking was at the time, if I could join the Marine Corps it would be easy to score with the girls. They seemed to like the uniform a lot. My senior year in high school, I met with a Marine Corps recruiter who pointed out all of the positive aspects of the Marine Corps. I was hooked.