CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division marched into position yesterday for a farewell ceremony at Schofield Barracks. Four thousand soldiers from the division will leave next week to spend a year in Iraq.
Schofield bids farewell
to departing troopsSpeeches at yesterday's deployment
ceremony prepare 4,000 soldiers
for their duty in Iraq
Nearly four decades ago a Schofield Barracks general reviewed 4,000 soldiers standing at attention in jungle fatigues on Sills Field before sending them off to fight in Vietnam.
Yesterday, retired Army Chief Gen. Fred Weyand, 87, watched while another general stood on the reviewing stand and told another group of 4,000 Tropic Lightning soldiers, "Today is your turn to answer America's call to arms."
Beginning next week, 3,500 members of the 25th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team as well as another 500 Tropic Lightning helicopter pilots, support personnel and medics will leave Wahiawa to spend a year in Iraq.
After the one-hour farewell ceremony, Weyand, who also served as Army chief of staff from 1974 to 1976, recalled that "it might have been exactly the same time in January when I addressed my soldiers bound for Vietnam."
"For me there is a lot of pride here," said Weyand, who retired here in 1976 and is now a Damon Estate trustee. "I am overwhelmed with pride. These are the same kind of young men ready to fight for our freedom."
Except for peacekeeping missions to Haiti and Bosnia, Iraq will be the 25th Division's first combat mission since the Vietnam War.
Col. Lloyd "Milo" Miles, brigade combat team leader, said his soldiers have anticipated the deployment since September when it was assigned to replace the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan. That mission was changed in November, and now the 2nd Warrior Brigade will be attached to the 4th Infantry Division in the so-called Sunni Triangle in northern Iraq.
Sgt. Jaime Oliveros, a squad leader in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, was in Kuwait three years ago with the 1st Infantry Division. He has told his squad of nine soldiers: "It's going to be hot. The sand fleas are a big problem."
"The biggest thing is hydration," said Oliveros, 23. "When you are outside you have to drink at least a quart of water every hour."
In his deployment address, Maj. Gen. Eric Olson, 25th Division commander, told his soldiers to trust the months of training they have endured.
"You have benefited from the lessons learned by our comrades in arms who have gone before us," said Olson, who also will be deploying two months from now with another 4,500 Tropic Lightning soldiers to Afghanistan, "and as a result, you are extremely well prepared and each of you is ready."
Olson told the soldiers that "there are no quick solutions to the challenges of combat there. It will take hard work -- the type you are used to -- to get the job done.
"But it is not just arms or the ammunition that you carry that will determine whether you win the battles you will find in Iraq. It's also who you are as individuals and who you have become as American soldiers that will make or break your efforts in Iraq."
Turning to the more than 2,000 family members and supporters who turned out for the farewell ceremony, Olson said: "These soldiers are ready. They are ready for anything that will come their way."
Gov. Linda Lingle noted: "Our world became a more dangerous place after 9/11. This global war on terrorism knows no boundaries. This deployment to Iraq will require great acts of courage. ... Things in Iraq are not orderly, but crucial in the nation's effort to fight global terrorism."
"Iraq and Afghanistan are two of the most dangerous places on the earth, and that is why they are sending America's best."
