Blue Angels to perform
in October at Kaneohe

The Navy's Blue Angels aerobatic demonstration team will perform two shows Oct. 9 and 10 at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay. The air show will be part of two days of ground and aeronautic displays. The Hawaii show is one of 69 at locations throughout the United States and Canada during the Blue Angels' 2004 season. Since 1986, the Blue Angels have been flying McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets. The team is made up of 16 officers and 110 enlisted members.

A Hawaii Army National Guard and 25th Infantry Division helicopter maintenance unit deployed to Afghanistan from Wheeler Army Airfield have been awarded the Army's supply excellence award. Soldiers of Bravo Company, 193rd Air National Guard, won first place in the category for reserve units, while Charlie Company of the 25th Aviation Intermediate Maintenance took second place for active-duty units. Maj. Roger Pukahi, Bravo Company commander, attributed the success of his unit to his soldiers. "They work hard in maintaining the standard. We challenged them and they stepped up," he said.

Cmdr. David Valente, a 1975 graduate of Kamehameha Schools and a first officer with Hawaiian Airlines, will relinquish command of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 51 on Aug. 21 to Cmdr. Patrick Barrett at Kaneohe Bay. His "Windjammers" squadron flies two C-20Gs -- a modified Gulfstream IV. The unit flies about 3,000 hours a year. It also transports members of the president's staff.

Capt. Michael Vitale will assume command of Navy Region Hawaii and Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific on Aug. 13. He has been nominated to the rank of a one-star rear admiral. He comes to Pearl Harbor after serving as the director of the Navy Senate Liaison in the Office of Legislative Affairs since August 2003.

Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock will become the new commanding general of the Pacific Regional Medical Command and the Tripler Army Medical Center on Aug. 11. Pollock was a special assistant to the commanding general of the U.S. Medical Command in Falls Church, Va.

Col. Doyle Broome, who commanded the aviation brigade of the 25th Infantry Division from 1999 to 2001, was recently promoted to brigadier general. Broome has been the 82nd Airborne Division's assistant commander for support since June 2003 and held the position during a deployment to Iraq. He left Fort Bragg to become director of strategy and analysis at U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., as a one-star general.