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In the Military
Gregg K. Kakesako
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Hawaiian general to receive third star
For 84-year-old Marilyn Peterson, Dec. 11 will be a special day. It will be the day that her son, Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Peterson, will become the first Army officer of Hawaiian ancestry to pin on his third star during a ceremony at the Hale Ikena Community Club at Fort Shafter.
Peterson, 55, graduated from Star of the Sea School and Saint Louis School in 1968. Attending the pinning ceremony will be his wife, the former Ann Moix, who he has known since grade school; their son Kevin, who is currently serving in the Air Force; his mother Marilyn, a longtime resident of Waipahu; and many local friends and colleagues. Peterson said the pinning ceremony will be held here so his mother can attend.
Peterson was commissioned as an officer in 1972 after graduation from the University of Santa Clara. Over the past 34 years, he has served in various positions, including commanding two Army divisions, including the 3rd and the 1st Cavalry. His most recent assignment was as the commanding general of the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, Multi-National Security Transition Command in Iraq. Following his promotion, Peterson will be the deputy commander for U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson, Ga.
Peterson comes from a long line of local military officers of Hawaiian ancestry, including Vice Adm. Bob Kihune; Maj. Gen. Alex Lum; and Brig. Gens. Irwin Cockett, Dwight Kealoha and John Aiona.
ISLE MARINE REMEMBERED
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The family of Marine 1st Lt. Joshua Booth stood for the Pledge of Allegiance during his memorial service yesterday at Tantasqua Regional High School in Sturbridge, Mass. Honoring Booth were his 1-year-old daughter, Grace, left, of Hawaii; his mother-in-law Anne Rust; his widow, Erica, of Hawaii, who is pregnant with his son, Tristan; and his mother and father, Debra and John, both of Sturbridge. Booth, who was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, at Kaneohe Bay, was killed Oct. 17 by a sniper in Al-Anbar province in Iraq. CLICK FOR LARGE
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Over the next five years, the Pacific Fleet will receive about eight nuclear submarines from the Atlantic Fleet and will mean that 60 percent of the Navy's subs will be patrolling the waters around Japan and Korea, along China to Indonesia and through the Philippines, a Navy spokesman said.
The Pacific Fleet's newest addition is a converted ballistic missile submarine, the USS Ohio, that will be working out of Pearl Harbor over the next few weeks. The Ohio is armed with 154 Cruise Tomahawk missiles and can also carry up to 100 Special Operation soldiers or Navy SEALs. By 2008, a second converted ballistic missile sub, the USS Florida, despite being stationed in Kings Bay, Ga., also will be patrolling the Pacific.
Both the Ohio and the Florida will have two crews, which will swap places every three months while the subs are still away from their home ports.
Next year, two of the Navy's latest attack submarines -- the USS Seawolf and USS Connecticut -- will be home-ported in Washington. The Connecticut and the Seawolf are expected to join the USS Jimmy Carter, already berthed in Washington. The three are the latest in the class of Seawolf attack submarines and are armed with traditional torpedoes and cruise missiles.
The Navy's submarine fleet is split almost evenly with 25 submarines assigned to the Pacific Fleet.
"In the Military" was compiled from wire reports and other sources by reporter
Gregg K. Kakesako, who covers military affairs for the Star-Bulletin. He can be reached by phone at 294-4075 or by e-mail at
gkakesako@starbulletin.com.