Big Isle soldier says
Iraq likes U.S. presence

A Big Island soldier recuperating from wounds he suffered in Iraq after his convoy was hit by a roadside bomb says Iraqis are happy to have U.S. troops there.

Sgt. Aaron Carvalho, a supply specialist from Keaau with the 411th Engineer Combat Battalion, said he was "surprised" by the reaction of the Iraqis to U.S. soldiers.

"A lot of them, at least those I saw, want us there," said Carvalho, who arrived in Iraq on April 2. "They are happy. They honk their horns when we drive by. They wave. They smile.

"You know you are in another country and all you see on the news is the negative, so in the back on my head I do think whether they are trying to trick me.

"I always think that and never got close to anybody. But they always seem pretty happy that we're there."

Carvalho, 22, said Humvees used in convoy duty have been reinforced, which probably saved his life. He is one of more than 200 soldiers injured in Iraq or Afghanistan whom doctors at Tripler Army Medical Center have treated.

Carvalho, a 1999 St. Joseph School graduate, described his Humvee as one that has been "up-armored" with a 2-inch-thick windshield and windows and a metal-composite skin that can stop bullets.

He said the underside, front and rear are reinforced using what has been called a "Kevlar blanket" to protect the occupants against mines and grenades.

On Aug. 21, Carvalho and four other soldiers from Alpha Company, which is normally based in Hilo, were wounded when the Humvee he was driving was hit by an improvised explosive device.

Three days later after 411th Engineer officials examined and repaired the vehicle, it was back on line.

A federal court in Florida next year will determine the fate of the tugboat Hoga, one of the last remaining survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

The Miami Herald last week reported that Dina Silvestri, who heads a south Florida nonprofit Pearl Harbor veterans group, has contested the Navy's decision in March to deed the 100-foot tugboat to the city of North Little Rock in Arkansas.

Two Army officers serving in Hawaii have been promoted to brigadier generals. They are: Bernard S. Champoux, who is the assistant division commander for operations at the 25th Infantry Division with concurrent duties as deputy commanding general for operations at the Combined Joint Task Force-76 in Afghanistan; and Randolph P. Strong, who is the director of J-6 at the U.S. Pacific Command at Camp H.M. Smith. Strong will head the Pacific Command's communications and computer systems operations.