U.S. airman from
Hawaii goes on trial
in Okinawa

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Associated Press

TOKYO >> A U.S. court-martial began today for a 19-year-old airman charged with the death of an Air Force maintenance worker on Japan's southern island of Okinawa.

Military prosecutors charged Airman 1st Class Damien G. Kawai of the Big Island with the murder of Airman 1st Class Charles F. Eskew Jr., 20, as well as larceny and obstruction of justice, Kadena Air Base spokesman Masao Doi said. He declined to elaborate.

Eskew was found dead in his dormitory room Nov. 17 at Kadena on Okinawa.

Kawai, who has been held in pretrial confinement since Nov. 19, was charged with murder on Dec. 5. Lt. Gen. Thomas Waskow, commander of the 5th Air Force, decided on March 16 that the case should proceed to general court-martial.

Kawai, a 2000 graduate of Pahoa High School, is an aircraft jet engine mechanic. He joined the Air Force in September 2000 and was posted to Kadena, his first assignment, in April 2001.

Eskew, the son of Patti and Charles F. Eskew Sr. of Great Falls, Mont., worked as a jet propulsion specialist at Kadena and volunteered as a chaplain's assistant there.

The trial was to continue later this week or next, Doi said.

Okinawa, located 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, is home to more than half of the 47,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan and serves as a key American military outpost in the Pacific.

Kawai could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without parole, a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay.