The Associated Press is reporting that Capt. Tomoaki Iishiba of Fort Lewis is charged in federal court with trying to ship firearms sights to Japan without an export license. FOB Tacoma readers may recall a short profile I wrote about Iishiba at Yama Sakura in December.

Hard to tell from the AP story how big a deal this is. It indicates Iishiba purchased the sights from a U.S. company. But it doesn't make clear whether prosecutors believe this was a technical sort of violation – failure to obtain the license – or whether they think he was deliberately trying to skirt U.S. export controls on sensitive items.

AP story follows:

By GENE JOHNSON
AP Legal Affairs Writer

SEATTLE (AP) — An Army captain who recently served as an intelligence liaison to the Japanese military has been charged with conspiring to ship holographic, night-vision-compatible firearm sights to Japan.

In a two-paragraph charging document filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, prosecutors wrote that Tomoaki Iishiba bought 60 of the EoTech 553 sights from a Northbrook, Ill., company called OpticsPlanet, then mailed them to coconspirators in Japan without obtaining an export license. The company’s Web site lists the sights at $639 apiece.

He also sought to export scopes and other firearms parts, the document said, including “upper receivers modified for Airsoft,” typically a BB-type weapon.

He faces one count of conspiracy to smuggle goods from the United States and is scheduled to enter a guilty plea at the end of the month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said Friday. Greenberg said he could not comment further.

The name of Iishiba’s lawyer was not listed on the court’s docket, and Iishiba, 34, did not return a call to his home in DuPont, south of Tacoma near Fort Lewis. OpticsPlanet Inc. did not return an e-mail from The Associated Press.

“The command here is aware of the charges that were filed today in this Capt. Iishiba case,” Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek said. “His command has been aware of the investigation as it’s been ongoing, and Fort Lewis has cooperated fully with civilian law enforcement.”

Iishiba has been reassigned from intelligence duty as a result of the investigation and is now working as an assistant operations officer, Fort Lewis spokeswoman Catherine Caruso added.

The New Tribune newspaper of Tacoma published a profile of Iishiba last December, describing him as the son of a Tokyo policeman who moved to the United States in 1993 to serve in the American military. He became a citizen, graduated from Northern Michigan University, and served with the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan in 2003. He wrote a book about it titled “A Japanese Lieutenant from the 82nd Airborne.”

At the time of the article, Iishiba was working as an I Corps intelligence liaison to Japan’s Northeastern Army at Yama Sakura. He earned the position after working with visiting Japanese troops who were training at Fort Lewis and Yakima, the newspaper reported, and he was quoted as saying he believed the Japanese are “too soft” and need to shed some military limitations adopted after World War II.

“It’s a different world now,” Iishiba said. “You’ve got to stand strong, but they’re not ready yet.”
He has also written a manual for the M4 rifle, has endorsed a line of knives and is credited as a technical adviser in the making of the video game Metal Gear Solid.

As we noted in today's story, Maj. Christopher Austin – the pilot of No. 2 – is a local product. Although it says in the program he's from Huntington Beach, Calif., he's really out of Port Orchard and graduated in 1990 from South Kitsap High School.

He says he'll have his mom and sisters and nephew and a ton of friends from high school out to watch the shows over the weekend.

So growing up over there in a Navy town, and in a region where the Navy's precision flyers are the big deal, does he see the McChord gig as a chance to get one up on the sailors?

If there is any kind of interservice rivalry between the TBirds and the Blue Angels, Austin wasn't going to let on.

"Not really," he says. "The big thing for me is we represent the entire military, and we represent the Air Force. For us, it's not about showing the demonstration teams, but more about showing the pride, the precision, the professionalism of the Air Force. Where I'm from near Bremerton, it's a Navy town, but when they come and see us, they can think about the folks that are deployed with the Navy as well. We're just trying to show the excellence of the military that we are all so proud of."

I think this is what the PR professionals call "message discipline."

Ah, but it's not impossible to coax a Thunderbird into revealing something he'd rather not: Like for instance, that he was a high school thespian.

An actor.

"I did have a lead role. I was Harry Beaton in 'Brigadoon.' He's the bad guy, trying to destroy the village," Austin said. "I was not a good actor, let's make that clear. I'm a better fighter pilot than I was an actor, but it was a lot of fun."

Anything about it help prepare him for his current job?

"I think every fighter pilot has a little bit of ham in him," he said. "I did it because it was fun at the time and it was in between sports."

Tech. Sgt. Jackie L. Larsen, 37 of Tacoma, died Thursday at Balad Air Base in Iraq of non-combat natural causes, the Defense Department and the Air Force said Friday.

Larsen was assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing from Beale Air Force Base, north of Sacramento.

She was serving in Iraq as a paralegal at Baghdad International Airport, according to a Beale press release.

The Beale release said Larsen was from Tacoma but was originally from the Philippines. She joined the Air Force in 1990. At Beale she was the lead noncommissioned officer in the base legal department.

She is survived by her mother and her husband, an active-duty airman also stationed at Beale, a base spokesman said.

Douglas

Don't think he'll be passing out cigars this weekend at the McChord Air Expo but Thunderbirds pilot Maj. Dyon Douglas is a proud new dad just the same. His wife Trisha gave birth to twin daughters Reese and Brooke on July 10 at the squadron's home station in Las Vegas.

"They were a little premature, about three weeks, but they're healthy and growing well," Douglas said Thursday after arriving at McChord.

He's been with the Thunderbirds since November and flies the No. 6 airplane.

Wasn't easy to peel away and come back to work after the birth of the couples' first kids.

"Absolutely," Douglas said. "You have kids like that, brand new kids, you want to stay at home and bond with the kids and what not. But like all Thunderbirds you have a duty, and our duty is to come up here and represent the Air Force. So that's what I'm doing this weekend."