|
Military duty is
family business
The daughter of a man killed in
World War II says goodbye to
her son headed for Iraq
Sayako Watanabe was only 3 when her father, a sailor with the Japanese navy, was killed in a submarine sunk by U.S. forces in 1942.
Her husband, Albert, was an infantry soldier in Vietnam, and tomorrow her son, Henry, will leave to fight in another war as a sergeant in the famed 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry.
The Watanabe family flew to Oahu from Hilo to share Henry Watanabe's last weekend in the islands before he ships out with fellow soldiers of the 100th Battalion and the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade.
Nearly a thousand soldiers and their families were at Schofield Barracks' historic B Quad last night where the 100th Battalion has been housed since the soldiers were mobilized Aug. 16. The rousing send-off included 320 pounds of Dungeness crabs donated by Ocean Seafoods.
This morning, the first group of 325 Hawaii Army National Guard and 40 members of the 100th Battalion will leave by a chartered jet for Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. The rest of the more than 2,200 soldiers from Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa and Saipan will join them by the end of next week.
Fort Bliss is one of two mainland training sites where the citizen soldiers will fulfill their four months of pre-deployment training before leaving for a year's tour of duty in Iraq.
|
\ This afternoon, Gov. Linda Lingle and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who earned the Medal of Honor while serving with 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II, will pay tribute to the 29th Brigade. The 100th Battalion -- one of three combat battalions belonging to the 29th Brigade -- still carries the colors and wears the "Liberty of Freedom torch" shoulder patch of Inouye's highly decorated unit.
During the half-hour ceremony, scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., Brig. Gen. Joseph Chaves, the brigade's commander, will case the brigade's flag. It will not be unfurled until the brigade is in Iraq in late February or early March.
As part of the state's aloha send-off, more than 7,000 tickets to tonight's University of Hawaii's football game against Tulsa were given to the soldiers and their families.
Watanabe, 65, said she was sad that her son is being sent to Iraq. "But I am very proud of all soldiers," she added.
Referring to her father, Kyugen Tamashiro, who was killed in World War II, Watanabe said her mother told her that "sons belong to your country, and you have to be strong when they go."
Henry Watanabe, 38, had left the Army Reserve in 1995 but re-enlisted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He had been a member of the Army Reserve's 411th Combat Engineer Battalion, but when he re-enlisted in 2003, he wanted an infantry unit.
"I picked the 100th Battalion because of its proud heritage. I also knew that eventually it would be called up," said Henry Watanabe, who left a job at Arc of Hilo.
One of the newer members of the 100th Battalion is 2nd Lt. Todd Ketterer, a construction worker from Georgia who was mobilized and sent to Hawaii on Aug. 16 to serve as a platoon leader in Delta Company.
Six days ago he was married on a beach.
His new wife, Lisa, said Ketterer had proposed to her in early August. "But that was before he knew he was going to be activated."
