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In the Military Gregg K. Kakesako |
See also: For Your Benefit
Kahuku High adopts
Iraq-bound unitsKahuku High School has adopted 18 platoons of the 25th Infantry Division that will be going to Iraq for a year.
But George Vickers, state president of the Association of the United States Army, would like to find 120 business, professional, religious, social or educational institutions to adopt platoons going to either Iraq or Afghanistan.
"We've gotten 10 at this point and we have a long way to go," said Vickers, a 27-year Army veteran. "But the word has gotten out."
Kahuku students have adopted soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, with whom they have established a "tremendous bond," Vickers said. "That is what we are looking for."
Over the years, added Vickers, who commanded the 14th Regiment from 1977-79, the soldiers there have helped Kahuku in all capacities. "Whatever the school needed, the soldiers from the 14th provided -- from painting to going into the classrooms," Vickers said.
The idea is to give the deploying platoons a way to get the small things -- Spam, soap, hot sauce, lip balm, coffee, creamers, reading material or letters for a soldier who is not receiving any.
Organizations adopting a platoon need to provide e-mail addresses and phone numbers for at least two people. Vickers' group will then pair off the organization with a Schofield Barracks platoon and provide e-mail addresses for correspondence.
More than 4,000 25th Division soldiers have been moving out of Schofield Barracks on chartered military jet flights with the last group scheduled to leave Jan. 26.
For more information, call Vickers at 625-0177 or e-mail at: vickersg001@hawaii.rr.com.
Capt. Phillip H. Greene, commander of Destroyer Squadron 31, will discuss the Navy's role in the current Iraqi operations at a meeting of the Honolulu Council of the Navy League of the United States Jan. 22 at the Waialae Country Club. Greene recently returned from Iraq and is in charge of eight destroyers, including the recently commissioned USS Chafee.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. with no-host cocktails, dinner at 6:45, Greene's keynote address at 7:45 and awards presentation at 8.
Cambodia and Palau will be the bases of search and recovery operations from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. Two recovery operations will be held in Cambodia as forensic experts look for remains of those missing in action from the Vietnam War, while four operations are planned for Palau -- the sight of fierce fighting In World War II.
More than 50 people will be involved in four recovery excavations and 15 investigations planned for Laos.
More than 1,800 are missing in action from the Vietnam War, 120 from the Cold War, more than 8,100 from the Korean War and more than 78,000 from World War II.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
"In the Military" was compiled from wire reports and other
sources by reporter Gregg K. Kakesako, who covers military affairs for
the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. He can be reached can be reached by phone
at 294-4075 or by e-mail at gkakesako@starbulletin.com.