GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Spc. Warren and Heizhelle Haney shared a moment yesterday. The couple chose Magic Island for a midmorning wedding ceremony Sunday. They had planned to get married on Oct. 26, 2004, but moved up the date after Haney learned of his deployment to Iraq.
Orders to Iraq
ring wedding bellsLocal Army reservists rush to get
married before the deployment
Scott Strong is working against a deadline to get his new family and new bride into a new four-bedroom house in Ewa Beach before Christmas Eve.
Strong, a 31-year-old Army Reserve staff sergeant, has been with fellow Army reservist Staff Sgt. Sandra Young for the past six years, and they have a daughter, Amber, 4.
The couple are with the Pacific Army Reserve's 411th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy) and had planned to get married after a building a new home. However, when they were told their unit was going on active duty for a year in Iraq, the couple moved their wedding day to Dec. 15.
They weren't the only reservists who felt the need to get hitched, knowing they would be away for at least a year.
Tevita and Maile Tuikolongahau were married Nov. 13 at a downtown civil ceremony. Warren and Heizhelle Haney chose Magic Island for a midmorning ceremony on Sunday.
GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Staff Sgts. Sandra and Scott Strong pose with two of his children, Duncan, 5, and Scott Jr., 9. Sandra and Scott are both with the Pacific Army Reserve's 411th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy).
"I had to use my lunch hour to get married," said Spc. Tevita Tuikolongahau, who has been on active duty since Oct. 15 at a Shafter Flats motor pool, helping his unit prepare for the deployment.
Tuikolongahau, a 1996 Waipahu High School graduate, met Maile, who graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1996, while they attended Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore. After graduating in 2000, the two remained in Oregon and found jobs, but when Maile became pregnant, they decided to return to Hawaii.
"We knew that eventually we would get married," Tuikolongahau said, "but tomorrow came a lot quicker when I found out that I was going (to Iraq)."
Spc. Warren and Heizhelle Haney had been together for the past five years after being introduced by friends. They have a son, Kyle, and planned to get married on his third birthday, Oct. 26, 2004.
"In fact, it was she who proposed to me," joked Haney, a 1998 Farrington High School graduate. "She got this ring and slapped it on my finger."
But Haney, 22, said things turned more serious after the 390 members of the 411th were told they would be part of the next Iraqi rotation in March, probably joining the 1st Cavalry Division to replace the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad.
"I didn't want to leave here feeling incomplete," said Haney, a University of Hawaii campus security worker. In the 411th, Haney works as a mason and carpenter.
GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Spc. Tevita and Maile Tuikolongahau, shown with 1-year-old son Kala, were married on Nov. 13.
Scott Strong, a construction supervisor and squad leader in the 411th, thought he was "safe" since had already served 15 years in the Army Reserve and was close to retirement.
"I thought I was in the clear," said Strong, a 1990 Waipahu High School graduate, who has three children from a previous marriage, "and then the word came down and my heart dropped.
"I always knew what I was getting into when I signed up," Strong said, "but when you get the alert order, you know what you signed up is for real."
However, his wife, Sandra, 28, isn't going with her unit because she is recovering from her third knee operation.
"In a way, I feel left out," said Sandra Strong, who works full time for the Army Reserve and has been in uniform for 10 years. "Everyone I know is going. Everyone I work with is going. It's a really small unit here. It's like being left behind."
Tuikolongahau, a mechanic with the 411th, said he joined the Army Reserve in March because even with a bachelor's degree he couldn't find a job here.
"I was aware what was required of a soldier," said Tuikolongahau, 25. "I am going to do what I have to do."
He now hopes to attend officer candidate school once he gets back from Iraq and continue in the Army.
Both Maile Tuikolongahau, 25, and Heizhelle Haney, 21, said the mobilization order scared them.
Heizhelle Haney told her husband, "You better come back."
Her husband, Warren, said the activation hasn't deterred him from wanting to make the Army Reserve a career. "I still plan to stay in for the full 20 (years)," he said.
"Hey, I put up my right hand," he said. "I'm going. That's what I got to do."
