In the Military
For and about Hawaii's servicemen and womenBy Gregg K. Kakesako
See also: For Your Benefit
Arroyo says U.S. troops
will return for trainingU.S. troops would be back in the Philippines in May for the next Balikatan training exercise, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced this week.
Speaking before the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, Arroyo also said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will be getting about $25 million in military upgrade support from the United States, the Manila Times reported.
The May-to-October Balikatan will cover five security assistance training modules and the improvement of the AFP competency, helicopter night-flying capabilities, intelligence fusion, training of light infantry battalion and light reaction company, she said.
Last February, about 1,000 American troops took part in a six-month training exercise in Zamboanga and the jungles of Basilan.
There were smaller exercises in Luzon.
The Army is fighting a proposal by the Office of the Secretary of Defense to cut the service's planned acquisition of the Stryker interim armored vehicle being built by Canada's General Motors Defense and General Dynamics to three brigades from six, Defense Daily reported this week.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is considering whether to trim the Stryker force to three brigades to save $4.5 billion, provide a basic capability to respond to small-scale contingencies and serve as an experimental base for the future Objective Force.
However, the Army maintains that it needs all six Stryker Brigade Combat Teams (SBCT) to fill the gap between its current force and the Future Combat System (FCS), which will not be fielded to many Army units for several decades.
The Army is now converting the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division (Medium) and 1st Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) at Ft. Lewis, Wash., to SBCTs. There are already more than 100 Strykers at Lewis.
Under current plans, the next units to convert to the Stryker would be the 172nd Infantry Brigade stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska; the 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) at Schofield Barracks; the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) at Fort Polk, La.; and the 56th Brigade (Mechanized) of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard's 28th Infantry Division (Mechanized), located in Philadelphia.
U.S. troops are not well protected from chemical and biological attacks, according to a congressional oversight study.
When it comes to having adequate suits and enough training, each of the services falls short in guaranteeing war fighters will be safe, according to testimony from the General Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm.
As of Aug. 30, the Pentagon bought about 1.5 million protective suits, adding to its inventory of about 4.5 million. "This level is now barely sufficient to meet the new requirement to supply 150 percent of (a major theater war)," the report reads.
"If new suit funding and production does not increase sufficiently to replace the expiring suits, the inventory will even drop below minimal needs for the 150 percent of a MTW (major theater war) requirement until at least 2007."
Hawaii Public Television will show the Emmy award-winning film "Journey of Honor" at 11 a.m. Oct. 21 at the Baldwin Auditorium on Maui. The film, produced by Stuart Yamane, follows a dozen Japanese-American veterans of the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team as they returned to where they fought in Italy 55 years ago.
For more information, call 973-0289.
Gregg K. Kakesako can be reached by phone at 294-4075
or by e-mail at gkakesako@starbulletin.com.
