Ocean Subiono (OS) and Russell Subiono (RS)
OS: I was 17 at the time and I made it, like, 95 percent of the way through. The final step is for you to go and sit down with one of the military doctors, and they give their final stamp of approval, and that’s it, right? After that you can go sign your enlistment contract and swear in.
But, that military doctor… he took one look at my face, and he said to me, ‘What’s wrong with your eyes?’
RS: Mmhmm.
OS: I have what’s called congenital ptosis… It’s a disorder that doesn’t allow your eyelids to fully develop. So my eyelids look droopy.
Up until that point, I had never thought, ‘Oh, my eyes might be a problem,’ cause I have 20/20 vision.
But that military doctor decided that he wanted me to be sent out for extra testing.
In that moment I didn’t really understand what was going on.
RS: Yeah.
OS: I didn’t understand that my processing had stopped. But I was medically disqualified from military service for all branches.
RS: You hadn’t applied to any colleges because you really had put all your eggs into the military basket.
OS: Yup. I felt that God had put me on this earth to do this. And… it felt like my entire life was ripped away from me.
RS: Yeah.
OS: It was complete darkness.
RS: You know, Mom and I were both in a place where we just had no answers. And we couldn’t do anything to take away that feeling of loss…
OS: Right.
RS: … that you felt. But, I had to let you walk that path by yourself.
Luckily you graduated your senior year… and you become a firefighter.
OS: Yeah… And then, about seven years after my initial rejection, there was a guy on the crew who was in the Hawaii Army National Guard, and he was a helicopter pilot, which was what I wanted to do from the beginning.
He set me up with his recruiter and he got me to be able to redo the physical.
I had this gut wrenching feeling that I was gonna walk through that door and find the same doctor… And it’s like, oh, he’s gonna recognize me and he’s gonna be like, ‘Nah, I didn’t let you in back then what makes you think I’m gonna let you in this time.’
But there was a different doctor there. He noticed my eyes… he didn’t think it was a big deal… And he pushed me through.
OS: To achieve something that you’ve chased for years and years and years… I had given up on it. And then it kind of came back and found me again.
RS: Yeah… I’m very proud of you, and I’m very proud of the man that you are today.
Ocean Subiono at his Honolulu Fire Department Academy graduation on March 16, 2018. Photo courtesy of the Subiono family. 
Russell and Ocean Subiono at his Oath of Enlistment ceremony on November 20, 2019 at Hickam Air Force Base in Hickam, Hawaii. Photo courtesy of the Subiono family.