SCHOFIELD BARRACKS — Allen Hoe wore his son's oversized desert combat boots, his own Vietnam War medals and carried an ancient Hawaiian battle weapon made of wood and shark teeth.

In a mix of modern military ceremony and ancient Hawaiian warrior rituals, Hoe yesterday offered a chant in honor of his son, Army 1st Lt. Nainoa Hoe, who was killed in Iraq in 2005.

The event was the dedication of a new, state-of-the-art simulation combat training center in honor of the fallen soldier.

In the background hung the U.S. flag that Allen Hoe's Vietnam reconnaissance team carried into combat in 1968 and Nainoa Hoe later carried with him in Iraq.

"This building will bear the name of Nainoa and our family," Allen Hoe told those gathered inside the $33 million, 90,000-square-foot training center. "In Hawaiian culture, the act of giving a name to anyone or anything is a most serious matter. ... Certain words like names have influence and impact, for they have mana, spiritual power, prestige, history, as well as authority, strength and honor."

A contingent of four Hawaiian warriors performed a battle dance and later stood guard over Hoe's lei-draped portrait hanging in the center's lobby.

The battle dance was intended to fill the new center with "the ancient warrior spirit," the elder Hoe said, so that "those who train here find in this place all that is needed to fulfill their individual and collective destinies as warriors in service to us all."

Nainoa Hoe, 27, a 1995 Kamehameha Schools graduate, was shot by a sniper on Jan. 22, 2005 while leading a patrol in Mosul, Iraq. As part of a Stryker brigade based out of Fort Lewis, Wash., his assignment had been to search for insurgents as well as encourage Iraqis to vote in the upcoming national elections.

As a soldier, Hoe excelled so well in basic training in South Carolina that he was offered a slot in officer candidate school but told his father that he "needed to learn how to be led ... before being a leader," said Hoe's brigade commander, Col. Robert Brown.

"Nainoa had a true passion for being a soldier," Brown said, but never forgot where he came from. "Nainoa was very proud of his Hawaiian warrior heritage."

After the ceremony, Allen Hoe said he sometimes wears his son's combat boots for special occasions.

The boots — size 10 or 10 1/2 — carry Hoe's identification number of AKH8407C and are a little too big for the father. But he wears them with pride, the way his son wore his "Hawaiian warrior heritage," Allen Hoe said.

Anyone who has been in combat knows the importance of proper training, Hoe said. So he's proud to know that soldiers yet to come will be better prepared for battle by training in the center named for Nainoa Hoe.

"It's awesome," his father said, "absolutely awesome. And I know that his warrior spirit is in this building. It is here."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.