FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM About 220 Marines of the 1st Radio Battalion from Kaneohe left yesterday for the Persian Gulf region to prepare for a possible war against Iraq. Staff Sgt. Travis Russell and his wife, Haydee, shared a last embrace before he left.

Kaneohe
Marines ship out

The unit from the 1st Radio
Battalion is the first large group
from Hawaii to deploy to the region

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

About 220 Kaneohe-based Marines became the first large element of ground forces from Hawaii to head to the Persian Gulf and a possible war against Iraq yesterday.

It was a scene that is being played out across the country: children clutching their fathers; the lingering goodbyes; loved ones embracing; and soldiers, airmen, Marines and sailors trying hard not think about the months ahead.

No one was saying where the Marines from Kaneohe's 1st Radio Battalion will end up.

That made the goodbyes even harder.

"I have mixed emotions," said Tamarah Smith, who has been married to Sgt. Tyvon Smith for the past three years and faces the prospect that her husband could be in a shooting war with Iraq by March.

"I just don't know what to feel. It's not knowing what is going to happen ... not knowing what's to come," she said. "I am just standing on hope."

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Marines of the 1st Radio Battalion from Kaneohe headed for the buses yesterday to be deployed to the Persian Gulf. The battalion will provide communications support and conduct electronic warfare in case of a war against Iraq.

Neeta Kissoon said the separations do not come any easier regardless of the number of times her husband has left. She and Capt. Joshua Kissoon celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary in December.

"It gets harder with each deployment," she said. This will be our third. ... and at least the first time, we knew it would be six months and then six months the second time.

"This time, we just don't know how long it will be."

She noted that her daughter Chloe turns 4 on Feb. 19, "and he's been here for only one of her birthdays," she said.

But Joshua Kissoon, who is the commander of the 1st Radio Battalion's Headquarters and Service Company, said: "We are doing what we are trained for. ... That's our business. I would rather be there than here."

Tyvon Smith, who has been a Marine for five years, said he is not concerned about where he will be going or what he will be doing.

"Like everyone says, this is what our training is all about," Smith said. "This time it's just in the desert."

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Staff Sgt. Robert Fuller spent a last few minutes with his son, Bryant.

Cpl. Monica Avelar, one of 11 women who left yesterday, said she was "just happy to get this over with."

The 1st Radio Battalion's job will be to provide communication support for intelligence units and to conduct electronic warfare.

Thirty members of the battalion left earlier this month to prepare for the arrival of the main party. The Kaneohe Marines will join more than 14,000 Marines from Southern California and North Carolina who are being sent to the Persian Gulf as part of a massive U.S. buildup.

The Pentagon has ordered more than 140,000 troops to prepare for the possible showdown with Saddam Hussein. More than 100,000 are already in the Gulf area.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM "Like everyone says, this is what our training is all about. This time it's just in the desert." Sgt. Tyvon Smith, Kaneohe Marine, left, with his wife, Tamarah

This is the third time the Kaneohe unit has been sent to a combat zone since it was activated here in 1958. The first time was to the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam in 1965, then to the Persian Gulf in 1991.

The 250 Kaneohe Marines are the first group of combat troops sent to the Gulf region from Hawaii. However, at least two warships from Pearl Harbor -- the USS Paul Hamilton and the USS Reuben James -- are part of the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier battle group, whose six-month western Pacific deployment was extended last month when it was sent to the Arabian Sea.

In addition, there are six Pearl Harbor nuclear attack submarines on patrol in the Pacific. Although the Navy will not say what carriers they are assigned to, these subs with their long-range Tomahawk missiles are generally part of the armada that protects a U.S. carrier.

The 40-member local reservist group 4th Force Reconnaissance Marines has been activated for duty in the Persian Gulf and is still awaiting transportation orders.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Capt. Joshua Kissoon, commander of the 1st Radio Battalion's Headquarters and Service Company, held his daughter Chloe and his wife, Neeta.