Case heads to Cuba
for facility tour

"It's vital that I take the opportunity to see for myself what's going on," said Case, who traveled to Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2004.

Last week Case joined 170 House colleagues in introducing a bill that which would establish an independent commission, along the lines of the 9/11 Commission, to investigate allegations of detainee abuse at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.

More than 150 Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers belonging to Charlie Company, 193rd Aviation, who returned March 2 after spending a year in Iraq, will be honored at special ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. this morning at a Hickam Air Force Base hanger.

Each soldier will receive an encased American flag, a commemorative coin, and a certificate of appreciation from Maj. Gen. Bob Lee, state adjutant general. The soldiers' spouses will be given a lapel pin.

The soldiers of Charlie Company were mobilized Jan. 7, 2004, and deployed to Iraq with more than a dozen CH-47 Chinook helicopters. They flew more than 1,200 combat missions, logged 6,240 combat flights hours, transported more than 55,000 personnel and moved more than 15 million pounds of cargo.

The Hawaii Foodbank will honor military veterans and civilians of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor at a fund-raising dinner Friday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom. The keynote speaker will Daniel Martinez, chief historian at the USS Arizona Memorial.

Among those being honored are Sterling Cale, a Pearl Harbor corpsman; Hilma Chang; John Haverty; Robert Hyland, who served as a radioman on the USS Pennsylvania; retired Army Capt. Robert Kinzler; Dick Rodby; and Alfred Rodrigues.

For more information, contact Jeff Yoshida at the Hawaii Foodbank at 836-3600 ext. 244, or e-mail at jodi@hawaiifoodbank.org.

Maj. Gen. Eric Olson will relinquish command of the 25th Infantry Division Wednesday morning to Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon. Olson, who will become the deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, has been nominated for his third star as a lieutenant general.

The Pearl Harbor-based nuclear attack submarine USS Pasadena left Hawaii Wednesday for the western Pacific. Cmdr. John Heatherington said his crew worked hard in preparing for the deployment. "Morale is extremely high," he said. "We will miss our family and friends; however, this is the most important part of our job."