GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM Seventy-four Hickam Air Force Base airmen boarded a chartered jet plane yesterday at the start of their four-month deployment.

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Isle airmen deploy
to Mideast

Two years ago, Senior Airmen Daniel and Casey Chang met while on a four-month Air Force deployment to the United Arab Emirates.

He was from Hickam Air Force Base, and she was from Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington.

They got married in July in Hawaii, and now they find themselves headed back to the Middle East as part of an Air Force rotation.

Daniel Chang, 23, found himself on the tarmac yesterday boarding a chartered jet with 73 other Air Force personnel from Hickam heading to Qatar, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Casey Chang, 22, who is now a member of Hickam's 502nd Air Operations Squadron, will join her husband in Qatar on May 27.

Lt. Col. Dan Settergren, 15th Airlift Wing's deputy mission support group commander, said an additional 150 Hickam airmen are expected to leave the islands later this summer as part of the ongoing Air Force Expeditionary Force rotations. Settergren said that unlike the 25th Infantry Division, which sent one combat brigade to Iraq and another to Afghanistan last year, Hickam does not have the luxury of deploying any one of its 140 units as a whole.

"It would mean shutting down the base," he told reporters yesterday. "We cannot afford to ship everyone. We have to keep the base open."

However, all of the 5,000 airmen at Hickam are assigned to one of 10 Air Force Expeditionary teams, or "buckets," for 20 months.

During that period of time, Chief Master Sgt. Jim LeVack said, an airman can expect that he or she will be away for four months.

"This makes everything more predictable," Settergren said. "We can better take care of our people. We can ensure that they are trained before they deploy. This can be done in advance and not at the last minute as was the case in some instances during the 1991 Gulf War."

Hickam has specialists trained in support and maintenance services, contracting, security, rescue, and construction and engineering.

"The Air Force can bring all these skills together in one place overseas," Settergren added, "from different bases. They are able to operate together even though they may have never worked together before."

One of the largest parts of yesterday's Hickam deployment were 34 members of the 15th Civil Engineer Squadron. Led by Capt. Reid Matsuda, a 1992 Mid-Pacific Institute graduate, they will be assigned to support Army operations for the next 120 days at Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan.

"It's great," said Matsuda, who lives in Aiea. "It's one of the few bases I haven't been to. ... Our mission won't be any different. It's just the base which will be different."

Matsuda spent three months in Kuwait five years ago.

Lt. Col. Michael Ris, commander of the 15th Civil Engineer Squadron, said this is the third major deployment for his squadron in two years.

Master Sgt. Richard Scott will be leading a 10-man team to Qatar, where they will be running everything dealing with boosting the servicemen's morale, including dining room services, lodging and recreational needs.

"It's pretty much an ongoing thing," said Scott, a 22-year veteran. "We are deploying somewhere about every 18 months."

David Chang said even though his wife will be with him at the same base, "we won't be allowed to live together.

"And no public display of affections is allowed."

But his wife believes it is still nicer to know that her husband is nearby.