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In the Military Gregg K. Kakesako |
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Nanakuli reservist treated
and will return to IraqArmy Reserve Maj. K. Albert Yazawa, who is on active duty as a physician at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, recently met with Sgt. Daniel Ranis, a member of Hawaii Army National Guard's Charlie Company, 193rd Aviation, who was being treated at the hospital.
Ranis grew up in Aiea and now lives in Nanakuli with his wife, Kaauki. Yazawa, a 1985 Iolani School graduate who lives on Maui, said he expects Ranis to be returned to Iraq soon.
Yazawa, who is part of Detachment 2, 1984th U.S Army Hospital at Tripler Army Medical Center, said Landstuhl Regional Medical Center is the largest military hospital outside the United States. It receives medical evacuees from both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Army Reserve Maj. K. Albert Yazawa, who is on active duty as a physician at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, recently met with Sgt. Daniel Ranis, a member of Hawaii Army National Guard's Charlie Company, 193rd Aviation.
There will be a lingering Hawaii connection in Afghanistan even after the command element led by Maj. Gen. Eric Olson, commanding general of the 25th Infantry Division, who heads the headquarters component of Combined Joint Task Force 76 in Kandahar, leaves next spring.Brig. Gen. Jason K. Kamiya assumed command of the Southern European Task Force (Airborne) in Italy in April, which is expected to replace the 25th Infantry Division in March. His top enlisted soldier is Command Sgt. Maj. Iuniasolua T. Savusa.
Olson's command of 18,000 soldiers is responsible for combating Taliban holdouts and the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida fighters.
Kamiya's light infantry rapid reaction force of 2,000 troops includes the 173rd Airborne Brigade, also based in Italy. Kamiya, a 1972 Saint Louis School graduate, had been the commanding general of the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk for nearly three years before moving to Italy.
The 61st reunion of World War II Military Intelligence Service veterans will be held Aug. 7 at 10 a.m. at the Ala Moana Hotel. A memorial service will be held the following day at 10 a.m. at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Contact Bob Honke at 373-4146 or Andy Sato at 983-1151 for further information.
The Hawaii MIS Club is coordinating the reunion. James Tanabe, an MIS spokesman, said the event is called "the 61st in keeping with the first big Hawaii MIS volunteers of 245 men who started language training at Camp Savage, Minn., in July 1943." He said the first MIS class actually started at the old hangar in Presidio in San Francisco on Nov. 1, 1941, one month before the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor. The hangar has been named a national preservation site by the U.S. Park Service and is currently undergoing refurbishment. Members of the MIS were Japanese Americans who served as linguists and interpreters in the Pacific War.
Armed with M-16 rifles and music sheets, the 25th Infantry Division's band deployed to Afghanistan and Qatar last week. After returning to Schofield Barracks, the 45-member band will be sent to Iraq from November to January. As with the 4,500 Schofield Barracks soldiers who left for Afghanistan in March, it is the unit's first combat assignment since the Vietnam War.
A memorial commemorating the services and sacrifices of veterans who have earned the Purple Heart -- the nation's oldest medal -- will be dedicated on Aug. 7 at Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe.
The date coincides with the establishment of the Purple Heart by Gen. George Washington on Aug. 7, 1782. Ceremonies will be held throughout the nation in this year's observance of "Purple Heart" day. The Kaneohe service will begin at 10 a.m. The Purple Heart is awarded to military members who are wounded or killed in combat. It is estimated that more than 1.5 million have been wounded in combat since the Revolutionary War.
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.
