CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Sailor Chris Harding said goodbye to his daughter, Julia, as the destroyer USS O'Kane prepared to leave Pearl Harbor this morning.
Isle troops The first group of Hawaii-based sailors and Marines has received orders that could place them in the next possible conflict with Iraq.
head for Gulf area
By Gregg K. KakesakoYesterday, 250 Marines and sailors belonging to the 1st Radio Battalion stationed at Kaneohe Bay were told to report to the U.S. Central Command in Southwest Asia in the near future. The Marines and sailors belong to U.S. Marine Forces Pacific, whose Camp Smith headquarters, with more than 100 Marines, shipped out to Bahrain last February.
The radio battalion provides intelligence support and conducts electronic warfare operations.
This morning, the destroyer USS O'Kane, led by Cmdr. Michael Viland with a crew of nearly 350 sailors and officers, left Pearl Harbor to join the global war on terrorism, with the possibility that it could be sent to the Persian Gulf if needed in a possible war against Iraq.
Standing at a Pearl Harbor pier this morning with his wife and two children, Petty Officer Hector Mendoza, an electronics technician on the O'Kane, seemed to reflect the view of most of his crewmates. "I am excited ... I just want to go out and do something," he said.
Petty Officer Andres Garcia, also an electronics technician, added, "We actually hope to do something this time."
Both sailors were referring to the O'Kane's last deployment when it spent most of its time in maritime operations, conducting searches of vessels believed to be smuggling contraband Iraqi goods.
Fifteen months ago, the 504-foot O'Kane was part of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier battle group, and on its maiden voyage supported the country's first airstrikes in Afghanistan in October 2001, following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Sky Watkins said goodbye to his wife, Melissa, as he prepared to board the USS O'Kane today.
The Carl Vinson is now in San Diego and is scheduled to deploy to the central and eastern Pacific. It could be used in a possible Gulf war. The Pentagon has plans to have at least three more carriers join two that are already within striking distance of Iraq.
By stationing carriers in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, the military would have Navy fighter-bombers in position to attack from three directions, complicating Iraq's effort to defend its airspace.
The USS Harry S. Truman battle group is now in the Mediterranean, and the USS Constellation is in the northern Persian Gulf. Aircraft from the Constellation help patrol the no-fly zone over southern Iraq. The attack submarine USS Columbia out of Pearl Harbor is part of the Constellation battle group.
Under consideration was a plan to send to the Middle East the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which is conducting training off the East Coast of the United States; the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is undergoing repairs at Perth, Australia; and the USS Kitty Hawk, which is based at Yokosuka, Japan.
Pearl Harbor-based destroyers USS Fletcher and USS Paul Hamilton, the frigate USS Reuben James and the nuclear attack submarine USS Honolulu are members of the Lincoln battle group.
Two Pearl Harbor-based warships -- the cruiser USS Chosin and the attack submarine USS Pasadena -- are in waters off California as part of the 15-ship USS Nimitz carrier battle group now undergoing three weeks of training.
The Nimitz was originally supposed to deploy this spring on a six-month western Pacific cruise, but is now on an accelerated training schedule in anticipation of a possible Iraqi war.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
