IN THE MILITARY
Group to seek MIA
By Gregg K. Kakesako
remains in Vietnam
Star-BulletinNinety-eight Hawaii based military specialists will investigate 68 cases of servicemen missing in action in Vietnam.
The experts are from Joint Task Force-Full Accounting at Camp Smith and the U.S. Army's Central Identification Lab at Hickam Air Force Base.
Recovery operations will take 30 days in 23 Vietnamese provinces and cities.
The military and Vietnamese officials have identified six excavation sites.
Since 1973, the remains of 529 U.S. servicemen have been identified and returned to their families.
There are 2,054 Americans still unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War, 1,530 are in Vietnam.
Nearly 130 Australian soldiers were supposed to spend three weeks of training at Schofield Barracks before traveling to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif.
"That training got canceled," a 25th Infantry Division spokesman said. "I wasn't told why."
The Australians were supposed to have trained with soldiers of the 25th Division's 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, known as the Wolfhounds.
Sgt. Maj. Chris Morrison, senior enlisted soldier at the 25th Infantry Division's Material Management Center, came in first in the over 40 age group at the all-Army golf tournament at Fort Gordon in Georgia.
Morrison won by eight strokes with a four-day total of 299.
That finish qualified Morrison for the all-Army team. Morrison placed sixth in the over-40 division at the Armed Services Championship held at Camp Lejune, N.C.
Cmdr. Bruce Grooms, commander of the attack submarine USS Asheville, was awarded Vice Adm. James Stockdale leadership award.
The award is presented annually to two commissioned officers below the grade of captain who are in command of a ship or submarine or aviations squadron.
The Department of Veterans Affairs -- working with the state Office of Veterans Services, Vet Center, and the National Cemetery of the Pacific -- has developed a "wiki wiki" card that contains basic information of benefits and services available to veterans in Hawaii.
The card contains information on eligibility, types of services available, and places and phone numbers to call.
New commanders
USS Columbus: Cmdr. Norman Moore will become skipper of the nuclear attack submarine USS Columbus.
