Official to visit
deployed isle Guard

The state defense director will
check on troops in Afghanistan

State Adjutant Gen. Robert Lee plans to travel to Afghanistan to see how Hawaii guardsmen deployed there are doing and to boost morale, officials confirmed yesterday.

Lee confirmed his plans in a message left with the Associated Press.

Maj. Charles Anthony, a spokesman for the state Defense Department, said yesterday that Lee's visit would occur in the next few months. The exact date was being kept confidential for security reasons, he said.

It would be Lee's second visit to troops in Afghanistan. He also visited with Hawaii soldiers there last December.

About 60 members of the Hawaii Army National Guard's Bravo Company, 193rd Aviation Division from Wheeler Army Airfield are currently deployed in Afghanistan.

Sixty-seven members of two other Guard units -- the 117th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment and the 298th Engineer Detachment -- were notified Friday of plans to send them to the Middle East on an 18-month deployment beginning in January. Their exact location has not yet been determined, but some Guard members have said they expect to be sent to Afghanistan.

Anthony said it was too early to determine whether Lee also would visit about 2,500 members of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade (Separate) scheduled to arrive in Iraq by February or March. About 600 members of the Hawaii Guard and Hawaii Reserves are already on duty in Iraq.

In addition to the Guard and Reserves, about 10,500 soldiers from the Army's 25th Infantry Division (Light) based at Schofield Barracks on Oahu also are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To date, 23 soldiers with Hawaii ties have been killed in the Middle East since the March 2003 start of the war in Iraq. Sixteen soldiers have died in Iraq, six in Afghanistan and one in Kuwait.

All six casualties in Afghanistan and nine of those in Iraq have been soldiers assigned to the 25th Infantry Division.

As adjutant general, Lee serves as director for the state Department of Defense, which includes the Hawaii National Guard. He supervises Hawaii's armed forces, maintains the readiness of the Hawaii National Guard for state and federal active duty and coordinates civil defense activities.