More soldiers returning
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
More than half of Hawai'i's 1,700 citizen soldiers who have been in Iraq for the past year have transitioned to Kuwait or are headed there as their deployment ends, officials said.
A couple of planeloads of soldiers with the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry are due back in Hawai'i tomorrow in the afternoon and sometime thereafter, and waves of other returns are expected through next week.
"We're hoping," said Hawai'i National Guard spokesman Maj. Chuck Anthony. "We get an inkling of how flights are intended to go, but they change."
More than 200 soldiers with the 100th Battalion returned from Iraq last week. The battalion is the first to return from the country among soldiers deployed with the 29th Brigade Combat Team, which is made up of National Guard and Reserve soldiers.
While the Iraq deployment is winding down, the Hawai'i Army and Air National Guard still have troops in Afghanistan, and Maj. Gen. Robert G.F Lee, the state adjutant general, visited with the Hawai'i service members last week.
"We want to let people know they are certainly not forgotten, and their contributions in this theater are just as important," Lee had said from Bagram Air Base.
Lee met with about 13 airmen from the 154th Security Forces Squadron on a six-month tour, as well as Guard soldiers with the 298th Engineer Detachment and 117th Mobile Pubic Affairs Detachment.
"Our 298th Engineer soldiers have been doing a lot of projects at (forward operating bases) throughout the hinterlands of Afghanistan," Lee said.
Lee traveled with the state adjutants of New Mexico and Tennessee and received a briefing in Qalat from Brig. Gen. Abdul Raaziq, an Afghanistan army senior commander.
In the next few weeks Lee is scheduled to catch up with Gov. Linda Lingle in the Philippines, which has a working relationship with the Hawai'i National Guard, Anthony said.
"It's another good opportunity for General Lee to do some information sharing with the Philippine military while he's there," Anthony said.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.
