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Hawaii’s so-called “button pusher” said the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency didn’t ask for his explanation of how he mistakenly sent a statewide missile alert until three days after the panic-inducing incident. Read more

Hawaii’s so-called “button pusher” said the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency didn’t ask for his explanation of how he mistakenly sent a statewide missile alert until three days after the panic-inducing incident.

If they had asked him, he would have told them, “I did what I was trained to do.”

“I just want to make sure the truth comes out as far as what happened that day,” he said Friday in his first public comments since Jan. 13 when he sent a cellphone alert warning of an impending ballistic missile strike. “I feel very badly about what happened.”

It took the state 38 minutes to correct the false cellphone warning.

HAWAII’S FALSE MISSILE ALERT The so-called “button pusher” sat down for an interview Friday. Here are some of the highlights: >> “As far as our training was concerned, I think it was inadequate.”

>> “At the time I was 100 percent sure it was the correct decision.”

>> “I feel pretty guilty and devastated.”

>> “I think the military and federal people should handle this.”

“At the time I was 100 percent sure it was the correct decision,” he said. “I felt sick afterward. It was like a body blow. I feel pretty guilty and devastated. The last couple of weeks have been pretty hard.”

The now-fired warning officer said he could not hear the drill message fully because someone in the office picked up a phone receiver, interrupting the broadcasting of the message through a loudspeaker.

What he did hear was “This is not a drill,” and that led to his sending out the alert. He said he pushed the alert out quickly because he believed the threat was real, and warning officers are taught to “minimize the time” when issuing an alert.

He said he wasn’t asked to assist in the investigation the day it occurred, and was off the following two days because those were his normal days off. The man said he wasn’t asked to provide an account until he reported back Jan. 16, which was his last day on the job. After that he called in sick because he felt “physically and mentally” ill.

“They (HI-EMA executives) trusted the supervisors more than the workers. The supervisors didn’t know the story and told the leaders false information,” he said during an interview at the downtown Honolulu office of his attorney Michael Green. “They talked to other people and got the wrong story. That’s why I’m coming out now.”

Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony, HI-EMA spokesman, said retired Army Gen. Vern Miyagi, the former HI-EMA administrator, who resigned Jan. 26, provided “an account of what happened that day based on eyewitnesses to the event,” but said the man “may not have spoken to Gen. Miyagi that day.”

Anthony said Miyagi did have a telephone conversation with the warning officer the day after the event but that he “couldn’t characterize the conversation.” Brig. Gen. Bruce Oliveira, who headed the state’s internal investigation, sought to interview the man Jan. 16, but Anthony said the employee opted to provide a written statement instead.

‘Comedy of errors’

State Rep. Gene Ward (R, Hawaii Kai) said the three-day delay in talking to the button pusher does little to instill public confidence, and perhaps provides more reasons to distrust the agency’s transparency and doubt its competence.

“Waiting to talk to the employee — that’s bordering on gross negligence,” said Ward. “I could see it if the guy was in the hospital in critical condition, but if it’s someone who screwed up, you query him right away. You heard about how much the guy hurts and feels bad, but the nation and the state felt bad, too.”

State Sen. Will Espero said this latest revelation just adds to the “comedy of errors” that has worked to erode public trust in state government in the aftermath of the incident.

“Obviously, this just shows more shortcomings in state processes and procedures and, of course, a lack of proper management or human-resources best practices,” Espero said.

It wasn’t until Friday that the button pusher finally gave his account in a series of interviews with the media.

The man, who asked not to be identified because he fears for his safety, has been on the mainland for part of the time following the incident.

HI-EMA officials have said they received death threats directed at the employee.

“He’s worried about getting killed,” Green said. “I think they came close to people figuring out who it is, and that clearly exposes him to great bodily harm.”

Green said the man, who was fired Jan. 26, has been “scapegoated” by the state and HI-EMA. Green is assisting him in filing an employment appeal to get his job back and said that they will likely sue the state.

‘Clowns and balloons’

Green criticized HI-EMA’s professionalism.

“All that was missing (at HI-EMA) were clowns and balloons. The place was a circus and they got their scapegoat,” Green said. “You are talking about the most important agency in the state in the lives of children and families, and look at the condition that it’s in.”

The man, who is in his 50s, had never been in the military, but was an almost 30-year veteran of the defense industry. He had worked for HI-EMA for 11-1/2 years. He was a member of HGEA bargaining unit 3 and held a security clearance, he said. Prior to that he worked in Washington, D.C., until he moved to Hawaii in 2002, where he worked for a defense contractor at Pearl Harbor.

“I’ve spent my whole career in the defense industry,” the former warning officer said.

But ballistic missile drills were new, he said. Hawaii is the only state that does them, and HI-EMA had been doing ballistic missile drills since only September.

The level of training at HI-EMA was “inadequate” to keep up with all the changes, he said.

During the ill-fated drill, the man said, there were four other people in the room with him, but his supervisors were absent. The man said the office at the time was “chaotic” and that its “energy felt different than a drill.”

“In my opinion, I don’t think the state is equipped to do the work,” he said, adding that he thinks the task should fall to FEMA or the military.

A state internal investigation, headed by Oliveira, and a scathing Federal Communications Commission preliminary investigation were released Tuesday showing multiple parties were at fault.

After the findings were revealed, state Adjutant General Maj. Joe Logan announced sweeping personnel changes at HI-EMA, including the warning officer’s termination and resignations from two top officials, Miyagi and HI-EMA Executive Officer Toby Clairmont. Logan said another supervisor, who was in the union and in charge of warning protocol, also faced an unpaid disciplinary suspension.

Oliveira said the warning officer confused the drill with a real threat, saying he did not hear “Exercise, Exercise, Exercise” read at the beginning of the drill — although five others handled the drill correctly.

Lots of blame

The FCC report indicated a number of anomalies that contributed to the transmission of the false alert. For starters, FCC investigators said miscommunication between the midnight and day shift supervisors resulted in a lack of supervision during the drill. The FCC affirmed the button pusher’s version that the drill script language was atypical because it included “This is not a drill.”

In response to the button pusher’s statement that it was the first time he had heard “This is not a drill” during a test, Anthony, the HI-EMA spokesman, said Friday he is not sure whether the phrase had ever been used during a drill before.

“There were 26 (ballistic missile) drills, and over the course of those 26 drills, there had been some variance in the script,” Anthony said. “I don’t know if this included ‘This is not a drill.’”

Anthony said it was a shift change, so six HI-EMA employees — four warning officers and two supervisors — were in the building at the time of the false alert.

“The button was pushed around 8:06 a.m. Who was in the room at the moment, I just don’t know,” Anthony said.

Neither the midnight nor day-shift supervisors have been disciplined as a result of the investigation, Anthony said.

A key finding in the FCC report also revealed that Green’s client believed the islands were actually under attack.

Gov. David Ige and HI-EMA officials, in several public explanations on the false alarm, had never disclosed that the warning officer actually thought a missile attack was imminent, instead saying that he pushed the “wrong button” or selected the wrong option from a drop-down computer menu.

Green said many inconsistencies must still be probed.

“No one knows what’s going on in that place. When they said that he pushed the wrong button, he didn’t. He pushed the button that he intended to push because he believed the threat was real,” Green said.

Model employee

On the day of the incident, HI-EMA’s Clairmont described the so-called button pusher as a model employee. But, according to Oliveira’s report, the employee has been a source of concern for more than 10 years because of poor performance. Oliveira said the fired employee had previously confused drills for real events, once for a fire and once for a tsunami. Those events were corrected on the spot, and the employee was “counseled.”

Officials also said the button pusher did not assist with the corrective process or cooperate with the investigations, other than providing a written statement.

The button pusher said the state’s portrayal is “unfair and totally false.” He said he was never counseled about prior mistakes and that none were documented. He said he filled in as a supervisor for the department at least once a week.

Ward said he’s tired of stonewalling across the state, especially from Ige.

“I’ve sent him three letters seeking more information, and he hasn’t answered any of them,” Ward said.

Ward said lawmakers have asked for a tour of HI-EMA and a forensic audit. Espero said lawmakers also are talking about creating a resolution for an independent investigatory commission that could bring a fresh set of eyes to HI-EMA’s problems.

While some expect more revelations will be made public once Brig. Gen. Kenneth Hara, the state’s deputy adjutant general, concludes his “comprehensive review” and provides an “action plan to improve state preparedness,” Ward has openly criticized Ige’s choice of examiners for being too close to the action.

“It’s a conflict of interest. How can the deputy adjutant general investigate his own boss?” Ward said. “The next shoe to drop will be Brig. Gen. Hara’s report. If they don’t come to grips with this thing, I think state lawmakers should get our own ‘Hawaiian Mueller’ on the case. We’re a laughingstock. We need to get to the bottom of this.”

For the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s full coverage of Hawaii’s missile alert scare, go to 808ne.ws/Hawaiimissilescare.