Festivities scheduled
for welcome home

Part of the event will be to honor the 43 Marines and two sailors assigned to the 1st Battalion who were killed during the unit's four months in Iraq, including:

Wahiawa Lions Club, city, Army, business and community leaders will host two days of homecoming activities May 21-22 at Schofield Barracks for soldiers who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan last year. The events on each day will begin at noon and will provide entertainment, food booths, pony rides, crafters, and artists at a community market place. The activities will conclude with showings of the movie "Finding Neverland" on May 21 and "National Treasure" on May 22.

The Air Force has reactivated the 535th Airlift Squadron at Hickam Air Force Base as the first C-17 Globemaster overseas squadron. It is commanded by Lt. Col. Chris Davis and will be partnered with the Hawaii Air National Guard's 204th Airlift Squadron. The first 535th Fighter Squadron was activated in Virginia in 1943.

The C-17 will arrive in January from Boeing's Long Beach facilities, with the remaining seven following at a rate of one per month. Half of the 90 people assigned to the Hickam unit will be at work by January.

A $190 million facility that will consist of three buildings for training, operations and maintenance, and a flight simulator, is expected to be completed this summer about the same time the first Hawaii-bound C-17 rolls off the assembly line. The C-17 is part of the military's continued contingency, humanitarian and strategic airlift operation in the Pacific, including moving the 25th Infantry Division's new Stryker combat brigade.

Moving Up