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4-H offers hand to families of deployed

Oahu 4-H members spent their Veterans Day holiday assembling "Hero Packs" for children of deployed Army Reserve families. The 4-H members wrote letters to the children in the "Hero Packs" and learned from one family what it was like to have a deployed parent.

The supplies for the "Hero Packs" were provided by the national 4-H program. The first batch of packs was shared with the children of the Army Reserve's 411th Engineer Combat Battalion at their family readiness support group gathering on Dec. 5.

"Operation: Military Kids" is an Army/4-H initiative to support military families here. When National Guard, Army Reserve and other military parents living in civilian communities are mobilized, their children suddenly have different needs. Now they are "military kids." Although they still "look the same" to teachers, friends and the rest of the community, their lives have been turned upside-down. Through "Operation: Military Kids," 4-H youth and military youth will work side by side to build community support networks for their military families.

The USDA/Army Youth Development Project is a partnership of the Army, Community and Family Support and the USDA Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service .

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Active-duty sailors, World War II veterans and others gathered at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to pay tribute to service members who died at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Rear Adm. Jan C. Gaudio, commandant of Naval District Washington, and retired Rear Adm. Pierce J. Johnson, the chief executive officer of the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation, placed a wreath at the statue of the Lone Sailor in a ceremony to honor the veterans of Pearl Harbor.

At the wreath laying, World War II veteran William Dixon recalled his life before and after the attack at Pearl Harbor. "It caught us all by surprise," Dixon said. "The country had been divided by those for the war and those against it, but once Pearl Harbor hit, everyone was on the same side."

Congress authorized the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation to raise money for a memorial to honor men and women who serve in the sea services. The Navy Memorial was completed Oct. 13, 1987.