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In the Military Gregg K. Kakesako |
See also: For Your Benefit
Hilton Village will
host Navy League
national conventionMore than 500 Navy League members and supporters are expected to attend the annual convention, which will begin June 18 at Hilton Hawaiian Village. The last time the Honolulu Council of the Navy League hosted the national convention was seven years ago.
Sheila McNeill will be sworn in as the first woman president of the Navy League of the United States. Other events include the "Follies Americana" dinner show in the Monarch Room of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, tours of the USS Arizona Memorial and the battleship Missouri and Pearl Harbor Naval Base, an open house on a home-ported naval ship docked at the Marketplace as well as special military briefings and excursions. Tomorrow is the deadline for registering for the convention. A complete listing of convention meetings and activities as well as registration information can be found at www.navyleaguehawaii.org.
The Library of Congress has launched a new Web site highlighting its collections of veterans' stories, patriotic music and community life. The site is called "Courage, Patriotism, Community" at www.loc.gov /courage. It is made up of three presentations:
>> Experiencing War (www.loc.gov/warstories) features 21 stories from the Library's Veterans History Project in the American Folklife Center. The project provides veterans and the civilians who supported them the opportunity to record their wartime experiences. Also included are photographs, diaries and scrapbooks.
>> Patriotic Melodies (www.loc.gov/patrioticmusic) illustrates the connection between patriotism, music and the expression of the American spirit. It features 26 selections such as "The Star Spangled Banner," "America" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee"; military theme songs like "The Army Goes Rolling Along," "Anchors Aweigh" and "The Marines' Hymn"; and music like "Over There" and "Yankee Doodle Boy" from musical theater.
>> Community Roots (www.loc.gov/folklife/roots) documents America's local festivals, community events and other grass-roots activities. One local tradition has been selected to represent each state, the District of Columbia, the territories and trusts. These include Buccaneer Days in Texas, which celebrates a time in history when pirate ships sailed the Gulf waters, and the World's Largest Pancake Breakfast -- serving some 40,000 -- in Springfield, Mass.
The U.S. government should not be forced to register women for the military draft because Congress and the Pentagon do not want to use women as front-line combat troops in a national emergency, a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer argued in federal court in Boston on May 19.
The argument came in a lawsuit challenging the Selective Service System, the federal registry of all men 18 or older that would serve as the basis of any future military conscription, the Boston Globe reported. The newspaper said four men and one woman claim in their lawsuit that combat-age women should be included in the national database that would be used if the United States ever reinstated the military draft.
Moving up
Pearl Harbor:>> Rear Adm. Richard Mayo, U.S. Pacific Command surgeon, is being assigned as deputy executive director and chief operating officer, TRICARE Management Activity, in Alexandria, Va.
>> Rear Adm. Robert Moeller, Pacific Fleet deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, policy and training, will become the commander of Cruiser Destroyer Group 1.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
"In the Military" was compiled from wire reports and other
sources by reporter Gregg K. Kakesako, who covers military affairs for
the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. He can be reached can be reached by phone
at 294-4075 or by e-mail at gkakesako@starbulletin.com.