[ WAR IN IRAQ ]
Kauai rallies LIHUE >> About 70 Kauai residents staged a rally yesterday at the entrance to Lihue Airport in support of U.S. troops in Iraq.
support for
U.S. troops in
Iraq war
By Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comThe 6:30 a.m. demonstration was "designed to catch the full rush-hour crowd," said Jim Itamura, a Kauai attorney who organized the event.
"There are a lot of Kauai people who have relatives over there right now," Itamura said. "It didn't take much organizing. I just called a few people, and they called more people."
A similar rally is planned for Friday in front of Kauai Community College.
Ron Wiley, a KONG radio announcer, has been collecting the names of Kauai servicemen in Iraq and Kuwait and has come up with a total of 57 so far, with others still expecting to be sent.
Mary Alvarez-Manuel has a brother-in-law, Galen Manuel, 22, serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and a nephew, Ryan Manuel, aboard the destroyer USS Porter.
"Galen called us last week, and we told him we were praying for him. He thanked us but asked us to pray for those on land more. I almost cried," Alvarez-Manuel said.
Lt. Col. Douglas Miles, son of Mr. and Mrs. Phil Miles, of Princeville, is at Camp Virginia in Kuwait serving as a liaison officer to the U.S. Army.
Phil Miles said they receive an e-mail from their son every three or four days.
"He's a bit frustrated," Miles said. "During Desert Storm he was a navigator on a B-1 bomber, and they never used the B-1 in that war. Now that he's off flight status, B-1s are flying missions against Iraq."
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