GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM As Kaneohe Marines and Navy corpsmen readied for deployment yesterday, Alex Lambert, 10, and dad James were among those spending precious moments.

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More isle troops sent

A Kaneohe Marine battalion
begins departure for seven
months in Afghanistan

Kaneohe Marines with the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, began leaving Windward Oahu yesterday for seven months in Afghanistan as the U.S. war effort continued to dig deep into Hawaii's military community.

By the end of the week, all 900 members of the battalion will be at Bagram air base, about 27 miles north of Kabul.

Yesterday's departure came on the same day that the Kaneohe base held an emotional memorial service for 10 fallen comrades.

The 900 departing Marines are in addition to previous Hawaii deployments, including 10,000 Schofield Barracks Army soldiers -- 4,500 in Iraq and more than 5,000 in Afghanistan.

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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Marines and Navy corpsmen prepared at Marine Corps Base Hawaii yesterday for deployment to Afghanistan.

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In Iraq another 900 Kaneohe Marines from the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, are in the brunt of the fight in Fallujah trying to retake the city from insurgents. They arrived in Iraq in mid-October as members of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. Already, eight of them have been killed.

Col. James Patterson, who commands the 3rd Marine Regiment, said yesterday that his one remaining combat unit, the 2nd Battalion, is preparing for a tour in Afghanistan.

"They will be replacing the unit that is leaving today for Afghanistan," he said.

Patterson said the 2nd Battalion recently returned from the Pohakuloa Training Area and will go back to the Big Island for more combat training early next year. The unit will then be sent to Southern California for 30 days before leaving for Afghanistan in June.

By early next summer, all of the 25th Infantry Division soldiers will be home from Iraq and Afghanistan, but 2,200 citizen soldiers from the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade will have replaced them in Iraq. In Afghanistan nearly 1,000 Kaneohe Marines will be still be there for seven months.

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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Family members spent a last few precious and poignant moments together. They included Navy Chief Petty Officer Gene Deener and his son, Jacob.

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Chief Petty Officer Gene Deener will be on his fourth combat tour when he arrives in Afghanistan today. The Navy corpsman has fought in Grenada, Panama and the 1991 Gulf War.

"Leaving my family is always the hard part because the rest is easy," said Deener, who has two children, Molly, 6, and Jacob, 10.

Deener, who is in charge of 64 Navy hospital corpsmen, is chief corpsman for the 3rd Battalion.

For Lance Cpl. Kyle Davis, 22, it will be his first separation from his wife, Patricia, whom he married six months ago.

Sgt. Adam O'Malley's departure yesterday was just four days before his son's fourth birthday.

"He said his daddy is going to fight like Batman," Debbi O'Malley said about their son, Adam, "but I tell him that his daddy is Bob the Builder, since he is an engineer."