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In the Military
Gregg K. Kakesako
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Marine Forces Pacific to get new commanding general
Lt. Gen. Keith Stadler, commanding general of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will take command of Marine Forces Pacific at 4 p.m. Friday on the fleet line at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Kaneohe Bay.
He will replace Lt. Gen. John Goodman, who is retiring.
Sadler graduated from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in 1984. He served as the commanding general of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in Iraq and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade.
The Army Reserve's 9th Mission Support Command will dedicate a pavilion at Fort Shafter Flats at 11 a.m. tomorrow in honor of Sgt. Evan S. Parker, who was killed in October 2005 in Iraq while serving with the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regiment. Parker, of Arkansas, Kan., was wounded on Oct. 23, 2005 when his patrol was attacked. He died two days later in an Army hospital in Germany. Parker, 25, had been assigned to the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Brigade Combat Team's 1st Battalion, 487th Field Artillery Regiment, but was serving with the 100th Battalion when he died.
Parker joined the Army in 1999 and was stationed at Schofield Barracks until he was discharged in 2003 and entered the Army Reserve. He was recalled to active duty in 2004 when the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Brigade Combat Team and 100th Battalion were mobilized.
The Lava Dogs of the Kaneohe Marine's 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment left Hawaii two weeks ago for the unit's third combat tour in Iraq. The unit is expected to replace its sister unit 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, in the Karma region later this month. Members of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines began returning to Kaneohe Thursday. About 200 infantrymen of the 1,000-member 1st Battalion have received some form of additional Arabic training and language instruction. Lt. Col. Andy Milburn commands the 1st Battalion which returned home last fall after seven months deployed to Iraq's Anbar province.
A Schofield Barracks spokesman confirmed that the Army in Baghdad ordered Capt. Matthew S. Gallagher -- who is assigned to 25th Division's 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team -- to stop writing a blog called "Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal," which chronicled the exploits of his time in Iraq and that of his platoon, which was called Gravediggers. The platoon was sent to Iraq in December. The last posting was on June 27. Since then it has been maintained by his fiancee.
A Washington Post July 26 story that said a May 28 posting, which depicted an officer in his unit unflatteringly, caused Gallagher's downfall. The story said that Gallagher also violated Army blogging rules by not having a supervisor review its contents before publishing. The contents of his old blog are kept on a Web site created by his friends: "kaboomwarjournalarchive.blogspot.com" after Gallagher was ordered by the Army to delete his blog.
Gallagher's unit Bravo Troop was sent to Sabaa Al-Bour, a village northwest of Baghdad, which Gallagher calls in his blog Anu-al-Verona, the sister village of Romeo and Juliet's Verona where Sunnis and Shiites played the roles of Capulets and Montagues, the story reported. Extremist militants were called "Ali Babas" in his blog.
In the May 28 posting Gallagher described his conversation with his supervisor, whom he had told that he wasn't interested in a promotion that would take him away from his platoon. He juxtaposed it with dialogue that was taking place in his mind, the newspaper reported. The supervisor took it "like a spurned teen-age blonde whose dreamboat crush tells her point-blank that he prefers brunettes," Gallagher wrote.
MOVING UP
Kaneohe Bay
» Lt. Col. Christopher Abrams has assumed command of Marine Heavy Squadron 463, relieving Lt. Col. Frank Wendling.
» Capt. Rodney Urbano has assumed command of Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 2, relieving Capt. Matthew Carter.
Pearl Harbor
» Capt. Bret Muilenburg has assumed command of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Hawaii, relieving Capt. Clifford Maurer.
"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.