Kaneohe
Marines
deploying

Some 220 troops will work
for communication support
and electronic warfare in small teams

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

Some 220 Marines from Kaneohe -- the first major contingent of island military ground troops -- will leave Hawaii tomorrow as part of the buildup for a possible war against Iraq.

Meanwhile, the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier battle group, which paid a brief visit last weekend to Pearl Harbor accompanied by five warships, received orders yesterday to steam to the western Pacific to replace the USS Kitty Hawk battle group.

The Kitty Hawk will join three other aircraft carriers already in the Persian Gulf region. This means that within weeks there will be five carrier battle groups with a total of 250 jet fighters ready to strike Iraq.

The USS Lincoln battle group is in the Arabian Sea, the USS Constellation is in the Persian Gulf, the USS Truman is in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and the USS Roosevelt just left Puerto Rico en route to the Mediterranean. Two Pearl Harbor-based warships, the USS Paul Hamilton and USS Reuben James, are part of the Lincoln battle group.

The Vinson will then be positioned to immediately respond to any needs that might arise involving North Korea, which recently expelled international nuclear inspectors and restarted a nuclear power plant.

In the Persian Gulf area, the Navy has committed 75 warships for a possible showdown against Iraq. They will be joined by 65 other vessels from coalition partners.

Also on deployment are six nuclear attack submarines from Pearl Harbor. However, the Navy does not discuss exactly where the subs -- the USS Cheyenne, Honolulu, Louisville, Chicago, Columbia and Key West -- have been sent or told to which battle groups they are assigned.

The 220 Kaneohe Marines, who received their deployment orders three weeks ago, are members of the 1st Radio Battalion stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

Lt. Col. Mark Aycock, 1st Radio Battalion's commander, said the Kaneohe Marines will be deployed in small teams in the battle area "to provide communication support for intelligence units and also conduct electronic warfare."

Aycock spent nearly six months in Bahrain last year as a staff intelligence officer for Marine Forces Pacific after its headquarters was sent there.

Not all of the 600-member battalion will be deployed to Southwest Asia.

The entire Kaneohe unit has been sent into combat twice since it was activated here in 1958: to Vietnam in 1965 and to the Persian Gulf in 1991.

Forty Marine reservists belonging to the 4th Force Reconnaissance Marines who were activated Jan. 19 also are still awaiting transportation orders.

The Kaneohe Marines will join the more than 4,500 Marines called to active duty nationally within the past week and 3,600 others previously activated.