|
In the Military
Gregg K. Kakesako
|
New Pacific Marine leader nominated
The Pentagon on Friday announced that Lt. Gen. Keith J. Stalder has been nominated to be the next commanding general of Marine Corps Forces Pacific; Fleet Marine Forces Pacific; and Marine Corps Bases Pacific. Stalder is currently serving as the commanding general of II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He will replace Lt. Gen. John F. Goodman, who will retire this summer.
Stalder, an aviator, has served as the commanding general of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in Iraq and as the commanding general of 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade and deputy commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Twenty-six soldiers belonging to the 7th Engineer Dive Team returned home this week after spending 15 months working in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. The soldiers worked on Coast Guard vessels; salvaged two Navy patrol boats; performed numerous dives and services on various other Navy vessels; removed a 142-ton bridge section from the Euphrates River that threatened to destroy a gas line and railroad track; removed two navigational hazards in the Persian Gulf using more than 7,000 pounds of explosives for the Kuwaiti government; destroyed an underwater section of the Sarafiyah Bridge in Baghdad, Iraq; and aided in the repair of a water pump on the Euphrates River near Fallujah.
Retired Air Force Col. Walter Kaneakua, a 27-year Air Force and Hawaii Air National Guard veteran, has been picked to be U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye's executive assistant for military affairs. He will replace retired Maj. Gen. Alexis Lum, former Hawaii state adjutant general, who retired. Kaneakua, who also was a captain for Aloha Airlines, retired from the Hawaii Air National Guard as vice commander of the Air Guard's 154th Wing at Hickam Air Force Base.
Paulette Ujimori, a civil and structural engineer at Pearl Harbor's Naval Facilities Engineer Command Hawaii, has been selected by the Hawaii Council of Engineering Societies as its 2008 young engineer of the year. Ujimori, who received her bachelor's civil engineering degree from the University of Hawaii and her master's degree in environmental engineering from the University of California at Davis, has been with the Navy since 2003.
"In the Military" was compiled from wire reports and other sources by reporter
Gregg K. Kakesako, who covers military affairs for the Star-Bulletin. He can be reached by phone at 294-4075 or by e-mail at
gkakesako@starbulletin.com.