Maj. Gen. Robert Caslen's 25th Infantry Division's headquarters will assume the responsibility for Multi-National Division-North from 1st Armored Division's Task Force Iron during a transfer of authority ceremony Tuesday at Contingency Operating Base Speicher in Tikrit. Caslen, who commands the 25th Division, and 1.000 soldiers from his headquarters and another 4,200 soldiers from his 3rd Brigade Combat Team, will be in Iraq for a year. The 1st Armored Division headquarters led Task Force Iron during a 15-month tour and returns home to Wiesbaden, Germany.

  Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard student trainee Matthew J.K. Patterson has been selected as the University of Hawaii's 2008 Cooperative Education Program engineering student of the year. A University of Hawaii at Manoa senior majoring in electrical engineering, Patterson works part time at the shipyard as an engineering intern. Another shipyard engineering intern, William Law, was recognized as an award nominee.

Patterson will go on to compete for co-op honors at the national level. In 2002, Chad Kaanoi, presently an electrical engineer at the shipyard, won the same award and became a national co-op student of the year finalist.

Patterson has worked two to three days a week in the shipyard's testing engineering and work control division since May. “;I really like it,”; he said in a Navy news release. “;It's a very family-oriented atmosphere.”;

The co-op program is a nationwide work experience program that formally integrates student academic and career interests with productive work experiences. Co-op partnerships offer employers an opportunity to recruit prospective employees and give students an opportunity to gain paid, career-related work experience. The shipyard has supported and been a proponent of the Cooperative Education Program, sponsored by the UH-Manoa Center for Career Development and Student Employment, since the program's early beginnings in 1986.

  U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka has praised the Department of Veterans Affairs for a new community outpatient clinic for Leeward Oahu opening in 2010. The Hawaii Democrat said, “;The needs of our veterans on Leeward Oahu are growing over time. This new clinic will provide them with the basic services they need and have earned through their service. It will spare them from battling traffic into town and reduce the pinch of high energy costs.”; Akaka is chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Honolulu's clinic is one of 16 that will established in 31 cities, according to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake.

  The 442nd Regimental Combat Team Veterans Club and the Elks Club each contributed $1,000 to buy snacks for Hawaii's 29th Brigade Combat Team, which is now deployed to Kuwait for a year. The wives of the deployed guardsmen negotiated the discounted prices for the snacks through various contacts. The Hawaii National Guard will airlift to Kuwait any local snacks, Hawaiian CDs or DVDs and AT&T phone cards donated by Wednesday. Details of Operation Gift Lift and drop off locations can be found at www.operationgiftlift.com.

MOVING UP

» Camp Smith: Capt. William Anderson has assumed command of Naval Reserve, U.S. Pacific Command Detachment 120, relieving Capt. Sandra Adams.

» Hickam Air Force Base: Brig. Gen. Bruce A. Litchfield, director of logistics at Headquarters Pacific Air Forces, has been promoted to commander of 76th Maintenance Wing, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Air Force Materiel Command at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.