|
Aloha Stadium sends
off the 29th Brigade
With more than 2,200 soldiers of Hawaii's 29th Infantry Brigade standing at attention at Aloha Stadium yesterday, Gov. Linda Lingle pledged to remember them at every public function her administration will attend until they return home from Iraq 15 months from now.
The send-off, attended by nearly 7,000 friends and family members sitting in the stadium's makai bleachers, was a far cry from when another generation of soldiers carrying the flag and wearing the patch of the 100th Battalion left for war 62 years ago.
Shizuya Hayashi, 87, was one of the original members of the 100th Battalion, which was the first Army unit comprised of Japanese Americans formed after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
"When I left, we didn't even have time to say goodbye to our families," said Hayashi, who went on to earn the Medal of Honor in Italy in November 1943.
The 100th, together with the 442nd Regimental Combat team, was one of the most decorated Army units of World War II. After the war, it became one of three combat battalions assigned to the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade and was mobilized Aug. 16 for combat duty in Iraq for a year.
|
Yesterday morning, the brigade started sending its 2,200 soldiers to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, where it will spend the next three months preparing for duty in Iraq.
A special half-hour aloha ceremony was held for the departing citizen soldiers before the University of Hawaii's football game against Tulsa, and soldiers and family members were invited to stay for the game.
One of those who planned to remain was Sgt. Melila Purcell, a member of the 100th Battalion's Bravo Company from American Samoa, because his son, Melila, is UH's defensive end. His wife, Savimoana, flew in from American Samoa for both the game and her husband's departure. She returns to American Samoa tomorrow -- the same day her husband ships out.
The elder Purcell, 54, has been in the 100th Battalion for 18 years and missed serving in the 1991 Persian Gulf War because his Army unit was alerted, but was never mobilized.
He said leaving this time is hard, "but it's my duty, responsibility and commitment."
However, knowing that his four other children are attending mainland colleges on athletic scholarships "makes it easier to take on this task since I know their educational needs will be taken care of."
|
Staff Sgt. Dick Matsumoto, who will leave today as a member of the 100th Battalion's Headquarters & Headquarters Company, said his father -- George Y. Matsumoto -- told him "to serve our country well and come back safe." The elder Matsumoto, 82, was a member of L Company and one of the original members of the 100th.
In her brief remarks, Lingle said "this is a bittersweet day because it is a day that we are all filled with such pride and such gratitude for your service to the people of our state and our nation.
"But I know it is a day of sadness as they contemplate the members of the 29th leaving for their training in Texas and then their eventual deployment to Iraq."
With the formation of the 29th Brigade stretching from the two end zones of Aloha Stadium, Lingle said that at every public function that she and Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona will attend, they will ask those present to remember "Hawaii's own -- the 29th Brigade."
Brig. Gen. Joseph Chaves, commanding general of the 29th Brigade, said, "This country faces the biggest challenge in its history."
Like his father's generation, Chaves said, his generation of soldiers is "fighting an equally challenging enemy. Today, we fight an enemy who is faceless, whose combined weapons are those of terror, hatred and violence."
He said that for more than 300 years citizen soldiers, like the 29th Brigade, "have been called upon to serve, to protect the freedoms of our nation. The citizen soldiers of our Army have never failed to answer the call ... Countless people are free today because of the sacrifices of the citizen soldiers."
Chaves said "as warriors we humbly ask for your prayers and support as we defend belief that freedom is the hope and aspiration of every human being."
