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GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM Company commanders with the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry, gather for a meeting at Fort Polk's Forward Operating Base Anvil.

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Isle troops complete
‘intense’ training

Hawaii's citizen soldiers finally got a chance to hit the showers yesterday after nearly 10 days of exhaustive training in Central Louisiana to prepare for one year of combat duty in Iraq.

Case to address needs with soldiers U.S. Rep. Ed Case will meet with members of Hawaii's 29th Infantry Brigade on Sunday at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. Case was asked by several family members of 29th Brigade soldiers to look into complaints they were not receiving adequate training and equipment. He said the Army has been working hard to prepare the soldiers and was making improvements to ensure their combat readiness but that there were still areas to be completed before the soldiers enter Iraq. "The men and women of the Hawaii Guard and Reserves are putting themselves on the line to support our nation and Operation Iraqi Freedom. We must absolutely assure that they have received the highest level of training and equipping before they are sent into the field in Iraq," Case said. Case said he wants to find out if Hawaii's soldiers have "any last-minute needs or concerns that can be addressed. We owe it to our country and our soldiers that everyone who is deployed receives the best opportunities to prepare for combat duty. I've visited Iraq and Afghanistan and understand the most difficult situations they'll be facing. They must be fully prepared, equipped and trained so that they can succeed and fulfill their mission." Star-Bulletin staff

"Today is shower, shave and clean up day," Maj. Mike Peeters, executive officer for the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry, said by phone from Fort Polk -- one of the Army's top training facilities for light infantry forces.

And after five months of training, including a stint at Fort Polk's Joint Readiness Training Center, soldiers like Sgt. Severino Tomas, 21, are ready for duty in Iraq.

Tomas and his fellow Hawaii citizen soldiers have spent long days at Fort Polk, where they trained in scenarios meant to replicate the kinds of things they could face in Iraq.

"I am kind of excited but frightened," said Tomas, a 2001 Farrington High School graduate. "Excited to be leaving Fort Polk but frightened of the thought of going to Kuwait and then Iraq."

He said his fellow reservists "just want to get it over with and get back home."

Spec. Damien Place, 21, shares those sentiments.

"The sooner I get there, the sooner I will get to go home. I am kind of excited, but what keeps me going is the thought that a lot of people did it before me. If they can do it, so can I," Place said.

"If I didn't go, someone else would have to go," said Place, who graduated from Castle High School four years ago. "Over the past few months, I've learned that what we think is hard is nothing compared to what others have to go through."

Over the next few days, the 100th -- one of three combat battalions assigned to Hawaii's 29th Infantry Brigade -- will prepare at Fort Polk's North Fort barracks for the next step: the nonstop flight to Kuwait.

The nearly 3,600 soldiers, under the command of Brig. Gen. Joe Chaves, should be on their way to Kuwait by the end of the month. There, they will join units from California, Minnesota, Oregon, Vermont and Michigan before they convoy into Iraq.

The mobilization of the 29th Brigade in August of 2,200 soldiers from Hawaii and the Pacific basin was the largest call-up of the Army National Guard unit since the Vietnam War.

The activation of more than 88 percent of the 3,000 soldiers belonging to the Hawaii Army National Guard is also the largest of any state -- which has worried the island's political leaders. Besides the 29th Brigade, the Hawaii Army National Guard has 200 soldiers -- mostly aviators and ground crew teams -- in Afghanistan. Another 100 aviators and mechanics are in Iraq assigned to the 1st Infantry Division.

The 29th Brigade arrives in Baghdad and Balad in mid-February, and will replace the 81st Combat Brigade from the Washington National Guard. It will be under the command of the 42nd Infantry Division, another Army Guard unit.

Nearly half of the more than 135,000 American troops the 29th Brigade will be joining in Iraq will be Reserve or National Guard forces, the highest share since the war in Iraq started in March 2003.

In the meantime, soldiers are trying to recover from exhaustive training before moving on.

"It was intense," said Peeters. "It was nonstop, round-the-clock operations, where we had to deal with a Sunni tribunal leader to breaking up a cell of insurgent bomb makers and counterfeiters."

"At one point we were attacked by a terrorist cell and had to call in helicopters to evacuate our wounded. And before we knew it, we were into our next firefight."

"For the first two nights of the exercise, I went 32 hours without sleep," said Place, whose tenure as a student at Honolulu Community College working on an associate degree in sheet metal was interrupted by the August call-up.