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    Seeing double

    Seeing double

    Photo By Senior Airman Brittany Bateman | Senior Airmen Kamuela and Kimo Kalilikane are identical twins assigned to the 91st...... read more read more

    MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, ND, UNITED STATES

    05.28.2013

    Story by Senior Airman Brittany Bateman 

    Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs

    MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. - Growing up in Ewa Villages, Hawaii, identical twins Kamuela and Kimo Kalilikane had to share everything from toys to clothes. Now as adults, they work under the same Air Force agency, the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base.

    Both are senior airmen assigned to the 91st Missile Maintenance Squadron, but they work in separate sections.

    Kamuela, the younger of the two, joined the Air Force two years before his brother Kimo, who attended one year of college before joining the ranks of the world’s greatest Air Force.

    “When my brother told me he was joining the military I was excited,” said Kamuela. “When he called and told me he got the missile facility job, I told him we were going to dominate the missile fields working for the best intercontinental ballistic missile maintenance team out there.”

    Kameula is a team chief assigned to the Facilities Maintenance section and Kimo is assigned to the Hardened Intersite Cable Systems section.

    “Even though they don’t say it out loud to us, we actually play a part in keeping the peace for the United States,” said Kamuela. “Our weapons system is a deterrent against foreign enemies. When I go out to fix a problem, it’s like I just saved the world.”

    Although they don’t work in the exact same job, they work hand in hand to provide proper maintenance and logistics support for the wing's ICBM fleet.

    “The thing I like most about my job is that most of the parts we work with are obsolete. It’s like your building something,” said Kimo. “When we go out to a cable cut or to dig out a case, we can’t use the same parts. It’s kind of cool but it’s hard work.”

    As children the two shared the same childhood dream – acting. At the age of 16, the twins played in a movie titled “Princess Kaiulani."

    “Our idol was Arnold Schwarzenegger,” said Kamuela. “Terminator 2 was the first action movie we ever saw and we watched that movie like 1,000 times.”

    Although one can easily make a distinction from their appearance since Kimo wears glasses, this wasn’t always the case.

    “People have mistaken me for my brother. My first day of technical school, my instructor walked in the classroom put his stuff on his desk, panned the room, looked at me and ran out to grab the other instructors,” said Kimo. “They all thought my brother was back.”

    Both airmen are very competitive. When Kamuela made senior airman below the zone and passed the Weighted Airman Promotion System test the first time, he expected nothing less from his brother.

    “We’re both competitive motivators in the sense that we’re always positive,” said Kamuela. “We’re both people oriented. We love talking to people. We’re old-school and we love to motivate people to do their best. A Hawaiian quote that we live by is ‘Ho'okahi no la o ka malihini’ - you are only a stranger to us for one day. This literally means that when we first meet we are strangers, but after that you’re a friend that will never be a stranger again.”

    Although both airmen have a lot in common, their future plans are slightly different.

    “I plan on staying in the Air Force for 30 years,” said Kamuela. “I love working with different people and going to Airman Leadership School was definitely an eye-opener. There are so many people that you meet in the military with some many different experiences, and I want to meet those types of people and influence them in some type of way.”

    Kimo on the other hand has slightly different plans and it all depends on where he is in the next two years or at the end of his enlistment.

    Both airmen find comfort in having each other close by and feel they are lucky to be stationed together.

    “I think it would’ve been different if he wasn’t here,” said Kamuela. “A lot of the time I rely on him when I need help. It’s the fact that I can count on him the most. When I need something done, I trust him to do it. You have friends like that but you can always rely on family. Blood is thicker than water.”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 05.28.2013
    Date Posted: 05.29.2013 15:34
    Story ID: 107707
    Location: MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, ND, US

    Web Views: 87
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN