COURTESY OF ARMY RESERVE Among the 300 from Hawaii's 411th Engineer Battalion now stationed near Baghdad, Iraq, are, kneeling, Sgt. 1st Class Filomeno Vidad, left, and Spc. Christopher Domingo; and in back, Command Sgt. Maj. Ray Irie, left, Staff Sgt. Scott Strong, Spc. Kuuipo Lilikoi-Gouveia and Maj. John Stibbard.

Isle troops in Iraq
think of home
as 2005 dawns

The Army Reservists of the 411th
are set to return in March

Solders of Hawaii's 411th Combat Engineer Battalion greeted the New Year in Iraq with a barbecue, karaoke and the hope that they would return on schedule in March.

"My thoughts for the new year is that everything will come out all right and remain peaceful so everybody can come back safe and sound," said Sgt. 1st Class Filomeno Vidad, senior cook for the "Hammerhead Battalion."

Vidad, who has been in the Army Reserve for 26 years, was undoubtedly summing up the thoughts of most deployed soldiers from the islands as they spent Christmas and New Year's Eve away from friends and family.

In a phone interview from Camp Liberty near the Baghdad International Airport, Maj. John Stibbard, executive officer for the 411th, said: "We are blessed to be here doing what we can for the Iraqi and American people. ... I am grateful for all the support we have received from the folks back home."

Spc. Kuuipo Lilikoi-Gouveia, from Pukulani, Maui, acknowledged: "It's hard to cope being away from my three kids. But I have a lot of friends. They support me and we help each other so our morale doesn't get down."

She tries to call home nearly every day to stay in touch with her three children -- Christopher, 8; Kuuipo, 5; and Jordyn, 2.

"I know it's expensive," said Lilikoi-Gouveia, who normally works as an entertainer on Maui but is serving as a carpenter and a mason in Baghdad. "But it's hard being away from home, especially during the holidays."

She said she has to rely on her husband, Christopher Gouveia. "It's his turn to be mom."

New Year's Eve for Lilikoi-Gouveia normally would have been a family dinner and "then we would wait until midnight to pop fireworks."

Vidad said his usual New Year's Eve was spent working as a chief at the Waikiki Broiler on Lewers Street. "That's one of our busiest times of the year," he said.

For Spc. Christopher Domingo, a heavy equipment operator, welcoming in the new year would have been spent with his family in Ewa Beach. "We would be having fun just sitting around, talking story."

He said soldiers at Camp Liberty were treated to a dinner of T-bone steaks, lobster, fried shrimp and pineapple glazed chicken.

Command Sgt. Maj. Ray Irie, the unit's highest-ranking noncommissioned officer, said although operations for the battalion had to be maintained around the clock, "we tried to minimize some of the work to give our soldiers some time to relax around Christmas and New Year's."

On Christmas, "we had a fabulous dinner and the key leaders served the meal," he said.

"We also got a lot of packages from our family support group and many organizations in Hawaii, so we passed them out to the troops. There were cans of Spam and mochi crunch ... lot of local stuff. So everybody got something."

The Hawaii-based Army Reserve unit left for Iraq in March, augmented by 300 soldiers from the mainland, and is supposed to be in Baghdad for a year. But like many units already in Iraq, the reservists face the possibility of being extended for three months because of the unrest caused by insurgents trying to disrupt the national elections planned for late this month.

Stibbard said his battalion is "on target" to leave as scheduled, "and we will continue to do our mission until it is time to go home."