General Siefermann Retires After 35 Years of HNG Service

Maj. Gen. Valentine A. Siefermann has been an Air National Guard officer for 35 years and state adjutant general for almost nine.

He was instrumental in fostering the growth of HANG in its early years and administered many innovative programs during his term as adjutant general.

Yet, he remains characteristically modest about his achievements, crediting those around him as the reasons for the Guard’s success.

“You can’t call it a job,” he said. “In retrospect, even though we’ve had trying times, it has not been a chore; it has been a pleasant and rewarding experience.”

“No one man runs an organization. He may guide it, but he isn’t the organization. It’s a team of qualified people working in concert to achieve a given objective. People were always there to assist.

“It would take a long time to name them all.

“When you work as a true team, it’s an unbeatable organization. Anything I’ve achieved I owe to people …,” he noted.

Siefermann gave special credit to his secretary, Jeannette Yoshimori; Sgt. Maj. Shinsato; all the staff; his deputies; and each and every member of the department for their extraordinary contributions.

Siefermann has especially enjoyed the challenge of leadership.

“I’ve always enjoyed problems. Facing each with a positive attitude, looking for the imaginative and innovative solution which will prevent problems from surfacing, is a challenge, and challenges keep one’s mind active, growing, and lucid.”

– 1981 Winter Pūpūkahi pp. 1

Maj. Gen. Valentine A. Siefermann: 35 Years with the National Guard

On December 30, 1981, Maj. Gen. Valentine A. Siefermann retired as state adjutant general, climaxing a 35-year career with the Hawaii National Guard and Department of Defense.

Siefermann is synonymous with the National Guard, having been a part of its growth since the end of World War II.

He was born and educated in New York, first arriving in island waters aboard a troop ship in 1943. He served as an aviator in Asia and the Pacific. During this time, he fell in love with the Hawaiian Islands and decided to make them his home after the war.

In 1946, while working for the commander of the 7th Air Force, Siefermann, then a 26-year-old captain, was asked if he wanted a job with the new Hawaii Air National Guard.

He gladly accepted and began officially working for HANG two days after Christmas in 1946.

“When I first got on board, we didn’t even have any airplanes,” Siefermann recalled. Instead, the first corps of Air Guard members, 56 strong, spent their time setting up Bellows Field while awaiting the arrival of the planes.

“We moved shacks across Bellows Field to provide much-needed facilities. We used forklifts and drums and trucks to move these shacks,” he noted. “We had a hell of a lot of fun setting up the facility. There was a tremendous amount of teamwork between people and we got tremendous help from the Army Air Corps.”

In March 1947, HANG’s first plane, a B-26, arrived. This was followed by nine more aircraft over the next few months.

“We had to scrounge for parts to keep the aircraft operational,” said Siefermann. Scrounging meant staging “raids” on Hickam Air Force Base.

Soon the unit was nicknamed “Nolan and His 40 Thieves,” Nolan being the unit commander at the time.

“We were a real close-knit group,” he recalled. Despite the inconvenience of travel across the Pali, attendance of full-timer and drill-status personnel was extremely high.

By June 1947, HANG had half its required troops. One month later, the first fighter was received.

“In October 1947, the unit moved to Hickam Air Force Base to an old troop carrier area and we again started the same process,” he said. Everyone pitched in to help build the new headquarters. “There was no such thing as being impossible. If it was needed, we did it.”

Siefermann and the pilots flew regular runs between the islands, carrying people and equipment.

He and his fellow pilots also flew dawn patrols. Dawn patrols were the vogue then.

“The maintenance personnel would get up early, get the aircraft ready, and the pilots would fly before they went to work. We flew more for the fun of flying than for the money.”

Siefermann fondly remembers one special event that closed out the decade of the ’40s—HANG’s first operational readiness test.

“We worked 96 hours straight. I can remember mechanics working around the clock. We were determined to make it and we did. It was then that we received the highest OR score earned by any National Guard unit in the nation,” said the general.

In early 1951, Siefermann, by then a major, was appointed air staff officer for the adjutant general’s staff at Fort Ruger.

Two years later, in July 1953, he was appointed commander of the Hawaii Air National Guard, a position he held until 1973.

During his 20-year tenure as HANG commander, he oversaw the growth of the Guard’s responsibilities. It grew from a small reserve unit to one with the duty of providing Hawaii’s total air defense network.

Siefermann remembers this period as one in which “the Guard started to grow even more.”

“We started to plan for the jet age. The first T-33 arrived in November 1953 and the organization just kept growing.”

HANG received its first F-86 jet in 1954 and began working with the Far East Air Forces at that time.

“In ’56, HANG assumed the air defense mission for the islands. It gave us a reason for existing other than training. We had a live mission and training became more intense, more demanding,” he commented.

“There was still tremendous morale, even with the aircraft transition,” he said. “Everyone was always gung-ho. Every aircraft, every piece of equipment was better after we got through with it.”

“The men really went all out to keep the equipment operational,” he said.

In addition to the new aircraft, Siefermann saw HANG’s 169th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron’s Koko Head radar station become operational in February 1958, providing 24-hour radar service.

“The late ’50s marked a turning point of the Guard into a mission-capable modern force,” he said. “Throughout all of this, we continually functioned on alert. Transitions to new aircraft were accomplished in an exceptional manner. Continuous—almost unlimited—talent was always available.”

In December 1960, HANG received its first F-102s, to be followed in rapid succession by the construction of the Kokee radar facility and a similar radar station atop Mount Kaala on Oahu, and the establishment of a permanent HANG home at Fort Kamehameha.

In April 1973, Siefermann became adjutant general upon the retirement of Robert Stevenson.

Siefermann outlined what he felt were the department’s major achievements during his term as adjutant general.

“For the Army National Guard, the Roundout program was a turning point in terms of training relations with the U.S. Army and the fact that our units are now so well-equipped in comparison with mainland units,” he said.

He was instrumental in establishing this Roundout relationship in 1973.

“It created closer relations between the U.S. Army and HARNG,” he commented. “Our association with Roundout helped improve quality and training, which is reflected in improved readiness.”

“We also built the Waiawa facilities and acquired an aviation unit.

“But what amazes me [about the Army Guard] is how they live through constant change …. They roll with the punches and are able to come out with a quality organization.

“What we need in the Hawaii Army National Guard is more full-time people, especially when you compare it to manning in the Air Guard.

“We built the Organizational Maintenance Shop and got additional manning, but it hasn’t been sufficient.

“If combat arms gets an improved officer and rank structure, we’d have depth and more experienced leadership. If he’s aggressive, a young man’s got to keep moving up and rotating to get ahead. But the impact is always on the troops because every new commander has a new program,” he said.

Nevertheless, Siefermann feels that the Guard has “excellent commanders” and an NCO corps that the active Army envies.

As for the Air National Guard, which has been such an essential part of his career, Siefermann cites its continued operational capability, 24-hour alert program, and the acquisition of new facilities as the major accomplishments.

“We’ve developed a hell of a good capability. We have a good air defense system and a fine group of people,” he said.

“However, the program will really remain viable since Congress authorized $12 million this year for the automation of the command and control phase of the system.”

“The time flew by so fast,” said Siefermann only a few days before his retirement.

“You can’t really single out achievements, you’ve got to look at the entire group of people. It’s the people that really did it.

“Anything I’ve achieved or have gotten I owe to others—every man and woman who has been or is in the department.

“In departing, I want to say to one and all—thank you. You’ve made that phase of my life a most meaningful and wonderful experience.”

– 1981 Winter Pūpūkahi pp. 6-7