Patsy Waipunalau Hussey

Patsy graduated from the Kamehameha Schools in 1952 and immediately joined the Air Force.Two brothers had been in the Army and advised her against that branch of the service, while joining the Navy or Marines required going to San Diego, so she chose the Air Force.Besides that she liked their blue uniforms.

Following basic training at Tinker Air Force base in Oklahoma, she was posted to Elgin Air Force base in Florida, working as a budget analyst.With an ethic for hard work, promotions came fast, particularly after she also became the General's driver.She made Sergeant after eighteen months in the Air Force.She was very astute as this experience taught her to always deal with the top people if you wanted something done quickly.After her four-year enlistment was up she left active duty and married an Air Force veteran who was still on active duty.Her budget analyst job was converted to civil service so she returned to work in the same office, doing the same thing, but in a different uniform.The next 32 years flew by rapidly as she raised a family, a daughter and a son, at various Air Force bases around the country, including Hawaii and the Philippines.Her husband passed away in 1986, and Patsy retired from Civil Service in 1989 as a management analyst at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.

Following retirement from civil service, Patsy returned to her roots in the Waikiki area.Having been associated with the military for over 36 years, she had a special feeling for our Veterans, so she joined the American Legion which immediately led to training in counseling and a job with the American Legion as a veteran's counselor.Soon her hard work and aloha for veterans resulted in her selection as "Legionnaire of the year" in 1992.She was tireless and compassionate in helping veterans to know and understand their rights, and in representing them before the Veterans Administration to ensure that their rights were forthcoming.

Seeking to simplify her life, Patsy moved to Moloka'i in 1993 because the island and its lifestyle reminded her so much of the simpler life in Hawaii when she was growing up.Here she could sit on her lanai and enjoy the sight of whales cavorting off shore between Moloka'i and Lana'i while absorbing the spirituality that affects so many of us when we go to Moloka'i.But not being one to watch grass grow.Patsy plunged into the Moloka'i community, becoming a deacon in the United Church of Christ at Kalama'ula, writing a column in the Moloka'i News, and taking an active role in various activities to support improvements in her community.When it became clear that there were many veterans on Moloka'i, most of whom had no idea what rights they had and many of whom were struggling because of various disabilities and lack of jobs, she founded the nonprofit organization, Moloka'i Veterans Caring for Veterans Center in Kaunakakai.Using her own personal funds and communication skills to talk to veterans on a local level, she established a place where veterans could meet and talk story.

While organized in similar fashion to the American Legion veteran organizations, the Moloka'i Veteran's Center is unique in that it is not affiliated with any national organization.It stands alone and thrives with over 330 members from a community of 6500 people, including children.In her work to help veterans since 1989, Patsy cannot remember the exact number of veterans that she has directly helped over the years, but they number well over a thousand, including at least 30 who are now receiving 100% disability payments when they had nothing before and many more who are receiving some percentage of disability payments.She brought Veteran Administration and Social Security Administration personnel to Moloka'i on an ongoing basis to ensure that veterans understood their rights and then went to bat for them to get those rights.

The way Patsy sees this effort, is that it's not just a matter of getting their rights and disability payments, but also an opportunity for these veterans to turn their lives around, to improve their families and their community, and to become involved in making changes to improve their island.