Briefs

Advertiser Staff and News Services

ARMY

Eagle prepares for Bosnia duty

The Task Force Eagle staff is beginning coordination of a six-month rotation deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina in April 2002 for NATO's Operation Joint Forge.

The deployment is part of a peacekeeping operation that began in December 1995 under sponsorship of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The mission is to enforce compliance with the Dayton Peace Agreement.

Task Force Eagle, a part of Multi-National Division-North, will be joined by a Russian airborne brigade, a Turkish battalion and a Nordic-Polish battle group. Lt. Col. William Bryan is the chief of staff.

The 25th Infantry Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. James Dubik, will assume command of Multi-National Division-North. About 2,000 soldiers from Hawai'i will participate. The task force joins National Guard units from Idaho, Montana, Indiana and Oregon.

More information about the stabilization force can be found at www.nato.int/sfor or www.tfeagle.army.mil or www.tfeagle.army.mil.

COAST GUARD

211th birthday this month

The Coast Guard, established in 1790 as the Revenue Cutter Service, marked its 211th anniversary Aug. 4.

Today, the Coast Guard focuses on waterway safety and rescue, border patrols, and interdiction of drugs and undocumented migrants.

The Coast Guard has also been involved with every maritime armed conflict since its inception. Managed by the federal Department of Transportation, the service falls under the Department of the Navy during war.

More than 1,900 Coast Guard members serve in the Hawaiian Islands and throughout the South Pacific.

In the first seven months of 2001, the Coast Guard assisted 223 people and saved more than $2 million in property, the service said.

MARINES

Field command changes hands

Lt. Gen. Frank Libutti relinquished command of Marine Forces Pacific to Lt. Gen. Earl B. Hailston in an evening parade Friday at Marine Corps Base Hawai'i at Kane'ohe Bay.

Libutti has been commander of Marine Forces Pacific since June 1999 and has been on active duty since 1966.

Hailston was most recently commanding general of the Marine Expeditionary Force, whose headquarters are in Okinawa. He has been on active duty since 1967.

Marine Forces Pacific is the largest field command in the Marine Corps, with nearly 80,000 Marines and sailors on the West Coast and in Hawai'i, as well as in Japan, South Korea and the Persian Gulf.