Military

For two weeks 17 “bellwether” families shared how they were affected after the 2021 leak from the Navy’s fuel tanks into its water system, which serves 93,000 people.

The families of five Hawaiʻi men who served in a unit of Japanese-language linguists during World War II have received posthumous Purple Heart medals on behalf of their loved ones nearly eight decades after the soldiers died in a plane crash in the final days of the conflict.

One of the year’s biggest military exercises in the Indo-Pacific is coming to a close. HPR's Bill Dorman has more in this Asia Minute.

The mystery of why current water sampling is showing levels of total petroleum hydrocarbons in the military's water system is still making some uneasy. Is it a case of false positives due to a reaction to chlorine and using the wrong kind of test, which is the military's theory?

Defense chiefs from Australia, Japan, the Philippines and the United States have vowed to deepen their cooperation as they gather in Hawaiʻi for their second-ever joint meeting amid concerns about China’s operations in the South China Sea.

On Friday, the largest regional command in the United States will get a new leader in Hawaiʻi. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is already in Hawaiʻi for that ceremony and some unusual meetings. HPR's Bill Dorman has more in today's Asia Minute.

The Navy wants to reduce how much water is being discharged into Hālawa Stream, but the Hawaiʻi Department of Health is concerned about the lack of monitoring proposed in its plan.

At Honolulu's federal courthouse, military families have been detailing their lives and medical ailments since being exposed to jet fuel from the Navy's Red Hill storage facility in 2021. The federal government has already admitted responsibility for the leaks, but now it's arguing the contamination was not enough to get people sick. HPR's Mark Ladao has more.

A trial for a mass environmental injury case began Monday, more than two years after the military's Red Hill facility poisoned thousands of people when it leaked jet fuel into Pearl Harbor's drinking water. The Conversation's Catherine Cruz spoke with people at the courthouse supporting the families.

A federal court trial starts Monday for military families seeking damages against the federal government for exposure to fuel-contaminated water in 2021. Attorney Kristina Baehr is part of a team of lawyers representing 7,500 affected individuals in three federal cases.