Loose ends daunting
for troops’ families
As isle troops prepare for Iraq,
their relatives prepare for absences
Kim Matsumoto is Vietnamese, speaks very little English and is pregnant with her first child, and when she delivers in October, her husband will be on the mainland training for a year of combat in Iraq.
"She's sad and she's worried," said her husband, Staff Sgt. Ryan Matsumoto, section leader with Delta Company of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry.
Every thought of her husband leaving leaves Kim, 32, in tears.
Carrie Takenaka's 20-year-old son, Spc. Craig Takenaka, left for Iraq in March to serve as a helicopter mechanic and a door gunner with the Hawaii Army National Guard's Charlie Company, 193rd Aviation.
Now her husband, Chief Warrant Officer Owen Takenaka, has orders to report for active duty Aug. 16 along with the 600 other members of the 29th Support Battalion. "It's tough," said Carrie Takenaka, who has been an Army reservist's wife for 28 years.
"My husband always tried to prepare me, but you really never expect to go through a deployment like this."
Sgt. Matsumoto and Warrant Officer Takenaka are among the 2,000 citizen soldiers of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade who will leave the islands in October for at least three months of training on the mainland before flying to Iraq.
Both Army Reserve and Hawaii Army National Guard officials are working to ensure that family members will have the necessary ID cards, signed payroll vouchers, wills, powers of attorney, medical and family care plans, and phone numbers and Web sites to turn to for help.
Yesterday, nearly 300 soldiers and family members of the 100th Battalion's Delta and Headquarters and Headquarters Company met in a day-long session at Fort Shafter's Army Reserve Center for briefings on topics ranging from pay and benefits to even dealing with the media. The Army Reserve will hold a similar session in Hilo on Aug. 14.
Ryan Matsumoto, a 1988 Kalani High School graduate and a member of the 100th Battalion for 17 years, said his mother, Elaine Matsuda, has volunteered to work with the family support group for Delta Company.
With the help of the Waialae Country Club where he works as a golf cart supervisor, Matsumoto plans to pay for private medical insurance rather than rely on the Army medical system. "That's because I wanted to have a choice for my wife, who isn't fluent in English, and we found a doctor who can speak Vietnamese."
Carrie Takenaka is working with the families and spouses of the Army Guard's 29th Support Battalion. "The first month after my son left was the toughest," said Takenaka. "Sometimes when I heard a certain song, I would cry. I know what it's like, so I keep telling the people in my husband's unit that the mission they are going on is so significant, not only to the state, but to the country.
For the 100th Battalion, which has Army Reserve units not only on Oahu and the Big Island, but in Guam, American Samoa, Saipan and the Northern Mariana Islands, the task of maintaining the lines of communication will be rough, said Sharleen Acierto, who heads the battalion's family support group.
Right now she has 15 volunteers and is looking for more.
Pam Lau, 47, whose son, Sgt. Keenan Lau, has been a member of Delta Company since 2001, said, "Things happened so fast, so we're just getting organized."
Irlene Torres and her husband, retired Army Reserve 1st Sgt. Henry Torres, are part of Lau's team.
"It was my husband's feeling that if he can't go with the guys, he wants to be here to help the families," Irlene Torres said.
The 100th Battalion's family support group is selling black T-shirts that bear the unit's crest, yellow ribbons and the words "Support Our Troops." Cost is $12, and they can be obtained by calling Laura Bolon-Keleti at 847-7408.
Service for Herndon
this morning
A private prayer service is to be held at the Schofield Barracks main chapel this morning for Spc. Joseph F. Herndon II, who was shot and killed Thursday while on patrol in Iraq.
The service will be conducted by members of the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division. Herndon was a member of Alpha Company.
Among those expected to attend are his widow, Melanie Herndon, and her parents, Ray and Elaine Long, of Derby in south-central Kansas, where Herndon was from. He graduated from Derby High School in 2001.
Funeral services will be held in Kansas.
Herndon will be awarded a Bronze Star posthumously and a Purple Heart medal with two devices to indicate that he was wounded twice -- the last time, just seven days before he was killed.
He was the sixth 25th Infantry Division soldier to die in Iraq since the unit deployed in January.