100th Battalion gets
to keep storied patch

Brig. Gen. Joe Chaves allows the Reserve
unit to keep the insignia for Iraq duty

The soldiers of the Army Reserve's 100th Battalion will get to wear their unit's coveted shoulder patch in Iraq after all.

The battalion's 600 soldiers are headed for an Iraq deployment next year with the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade. As of last week, Brig. Gen. Joe Chaves, commander of the brigade, said Army regulations required all brigade members, including soldiers of the Army Reserve's 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry, to "wear the shoulder sleeve insignia of the brigade they are assigned to" and not the battalion's patch.

U.S. ARMY The Army Reserve's 100th Battalion soldiers will be allowed to wear the heralded combat insignia of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team into another war zone when they go to Iraq next year. The 100th is one of three infantry combat battalions assigned to the 29th Brigade.

The 100th, which traces its lineage to the highly decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team of World War II, is one of three infantry combat battalions assigned to the 3,000-member 29th Brigade.

On Sept. 4, Army Chief of Staff Peter Shoomaker was visiting training at Schofield Barracks when he was asked by 100th Battalion Medal of Honor recipient Shizuya Hayashi if the current battalion soldiers could wear the shoulder patch that he wore through World War II as a member of an Army unit made up of nisei, or first-generation Japanese Americans.

Shoomaker told Chaves he would support any decision the Hawaii National Guard leader made.

Yesterday, Chaves met with the soldiers of the 100th to let them know he will authorize them to continue to wear their patch throughout their mobilization.

In a statement to the Star-Bulletin, Chaves said that until July 20 when he met with 5th Army officials, who are his brigade's higher headquarters, he had wanted the 100th Battalion to keep its shoulder patch when the brigade went on active duty Aug. 16. However, Chaves said that 5th Army officials in Texas said that such practice did not conform to Army regulations.

The matter was complicated because in 1955 and 1956 there were Army memos that authorized the 100th Battalion to wear the shoulder patch of the World War II unit. The 100th Battalion was activated right after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack and was later made a part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team as one of its infantry battalions.

On Aug. 20, Chaves said he met with the soldiers of the 100th Battalion to review the chronological events and told them that unless he could find a regulation or special authority, he would require them to wear the brigade patch.

"It was my intent to be upfront with the battalion so that the SSI (shoulder sleeve insignia) would not become major training distractions as we prepared for this dangerous deployment," Chaves said. "Though the soldiers were very disappointed, their response was professional and supportive of my decision."