GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM
A 25th Infantry Division truck and trailer, one of 2,000 pieces of combat equipment bound for Iraq, were loaded on the Navy cargo ship USNS Pililaau at Ford Island yesterday.
Navy and Army
move gear for
25th’s Iraq duty
The Navy and Army teamed up this week to move more than 2,000 pieces of combat equipment -- including helicopters, trucks, tents and night-vision goggles -- needed by the 25th Infantry Division when it arrives in Iraq next year.
Since Monday, more than 200 military personnel and civilians have been working around the clock at Ford Island, filling the cavernous 950-foot USNS Pililaau, named for Medal of Honor recipient Pfc. Herbert Kaili Pililaau of Waianae.
Navy Lt. Dwayne Barnes, deputy for ocean terminals at the Fleet Industrial Supply Center, said the job is a challenge since it is the largest movement in many years.
Philip Blaha, Pililaau's chief engineer, said that with 387,000 square feet of cargo space the vessel can carry up to 70,000 tons, including 50 to 60 M1A2 Abrams tanks, 40 armored personnel carriers, 900 other support vehicles like trucks and Humvees, and cranes.
This time, the Pililaau will be filled with 20 Kiowa Warrior helicopters, 800 wheeled vehicles, 500 trailer trucks and 300 containers holding other equipment belonging to the 25th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade and engineer unit. The Schofield Barracks soldiers will replace the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq in February.
"There is enough equipment to the fill up the vessel, which is equivalent to eight football fields," said Army Lt. Col. Eric Criner, commander of the 17th Corps Support Battalion. He estimated that the biggest pieces of equipment are the bulldozers, road scrapers and helicopters, which are encased in a white, protective shrink-wrap.
Capt. Frank Reed, the master, or captain, of the Pililaau, said he will plot a course so the vessel will arrive in the Persian Gulf a couple days after the soldiers arrive.
The Pililaau is one of 19 ships belonging to the Navy's Military Sealift Command but is crewed by civilians working for Patriot Contract Services, a division of American Ship Management of Walnut Creek, Calif., and Newport News, Va.
More than one-third of the officers in the 2nd Brigade are veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Criner said, which was helpful in planning the yearlong deployment to Iraq.
Planning to move equipment started two weeks ago, Barnes said.
"The footprint of the load is so big we knew we needed a large vessel," he said.
A small contingent of Schofield Barracks soldiers will accompany the cargo when the Pililaau pulls out of Pearl Harbor on Friday. It will be the ship's sixth voyage to the Persian Gulf since it was placed into operation a year ago.
