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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM At left, Army Spc. Heidi Lanias posed with her daughter, Anuhea, 4, and boyfriend, Judd Matsuda, at their Mililani home. Lanias returned March 2 from Iraq with the Hawaii Army National Guard's 193rd Aviation, Charlie Company, and is spending Mother's Day with her family.

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2 moms back
with loved ones
after Iraq

The Hawaii Army National
Guard specialists are ready
for Mother's Day

For Heidi Lanias and Janeen Payne, Mother's Day 2004 was spent in an Army mess hall in dusty Balad, Iraq, surrounded by other parents who couldn't be with their loved ones because of the war in Iraq.

"I really can't recall the dinner," said Payne, who joined the Hawaii Army National Guard six years ago because she wanted more of a challenge than being a mother of three. "I know it was really good because of the atmosphere. Here we were parents minus our children.

"And there were a lot of memories."

Lanias, 25, had called her 4-year-old daughter, Anuhea, the day before because Iraq is nearly 13 hours ahead of Hawaii.

"My mother had sent me a care package of cards and a collage of my daughter's drawings," Lanias said. "On one of the card she had written 'Happy Mother's Day.'"

Today, after a year as members of the 193rd Aviation's Charlie Company, Lanias and Payne -- both specialists in the Hawaii Army National Guard -- will gather with their children, their mothers and family members to celebrate a more traditional Mother's Day.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM At right, Army Spc. Janeen Payne posed with her family at Avalon Care Home in Kalihi. Pictured are her mother, Dorothea Molina, husband, Shanon Payne, and four sons, Joshua Molina-Behie, 9, left, Johnathan Molina-Behie, 11, Jaustis Molina-Behie, 13, and Kenneth Payne, 7. Payne, also with Charlie Company, returned from Iraq on Feb. 18.

"It will be a typical Hawaiian food with lau lau, poke and poi," said Payne, who graduated from Leilehua School in 1991.

For dinner, Payne said it will be a beach picnic with her four sisters and three brothers and their children.

She knows that her sons plan to give her a Mother's Day gift they made in school.

"I only know that because they tried to give it to me today (Friday), but I told them to wait until Sunday."

Lanias, who joined the Hawaii Army National Guard during her senior year at Mililani High School in 1998, plans to take her mother, Pamela Lanias, her daughter and her boyfriend, Judd Matsuda, for a traditional Mother's Day dinner at her mom's favorite Italian restaurant in Mililani.

Both Lanias and Payne will remain on active duty through July to take care of the equipment and helicopters that are being returned from Iraq.

By mid-summer Payne, a helicopter refueler, hopes to return to her job as a warehouse supervisor for a civilian contractor at Schofield Barracks.

Lanias said today will be a special Mother's Day holiday as she tries to forget the war and the 10-hour work days at Logistical Support Area Anaconda in Balad.

"But then any holiday here is better than Iraq," she added.