GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM
First Sgt. Douglas Power and Cpl. Israel Campbell are two of the 50 Kaneohe Marines returning to Kuwait and Iraq as part of a 110,000-member replacement force.
Kaneohe Marines packing
bags again for Iraq
Marine Corps Lt. Col. Mark Aycock has missed his last two birthdays with his family in Kaneohe because he was in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It will happen again this year.
On May 23, Aycock will again be in Iraq -- rather than marking his 43rd birthday with his family -- heading the 3rd Radio Battalion, which has been recalled.
The Iraq deployment, which could last six to eight months, will mean that Staff Sgt. Nathan Hofer, 26, will miss the birth of his first child in July during his first combat deployment.
For at least 50 of the 150 departing Kaneohe Marines, going to Iraq is almost a repeat of last year when they were called to be part of the buildup for the last Iraqi offensive. The 3rd Radio Battalion then was designated as the 1st Radio Battalion, and it shipped out of Kaneohe with more than 200 Marines.
After spending six months in Kuwait and Iraq last year, Aycock never expected the 3rd Radio Battalion to return this year. However, the Marines received deployment orders yesterday and are expected to leave for Iraq sometime next month.
"I suspected that the 3rd Radio Battalion would go back," said Aycock. "I didn't expect it to be so quick."
The Kaneohe Marines will be part of a 25,000-person Marine Corps air and ground force that will replace Army troops who have been in Iraq for more than a year. More than 110,000 military members are being sent to Iraq in the largest combat movement since World War II. More than 4,000 soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division are also part of that replacement force.
Aycock noted that his unit has been in combat only four times since it was activated in 1958: Vietnam in 1965, the Persian Gulf in 1991 and twice in Iraq.
The Kaneohe Marines will provide communications support for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force from Camp Pendleton in California since it does not have a radio battalion.
Cpl. Israel Campbell, 23, was part of the first Iraqi deployment, although he spent most of his time at Camp Commando in Kuwait and returned home in September.
When Campbell, a computer specialist, was in Babylon, south of Baghdad, in June, "nothing much happened."
"Most of the hostilities were over," Campbell added. "There were no real concerns then."
Holly Hofer said she knew what it meant to be a Marine wife when she got married nearly eight years ago. "We weren't married for three weeks, and then he was gone for three weeks. ... You know it's always there and you hope it never happens."
She plans to take their 3-year-old part German shepherd-Labrador dog to Montana so she can be with her family when their baby is born in July.
"I feel comfortable with her being there since I can't be here with her when the baby comes," said her husband, Nathan Hofer.
