Briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
ARMY
Repatriation ceremony today
The U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawai'i will return the remains of a South Korean soldier killed in the Vietnam War to his family and representatives of his country at a repatriation ceremony today at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
Maj. Woo Sik Park was recently identified when a portion of his remains were recovered from the site of an American UH-1 helicopter that crashed on Dec. 2, 1967 in Phu Khanh Province.
Park, commander of South Korea's 3rd Company, 29th Regiment, 9th Division, was a passenger in the helicopter and serving as an allied military adviser.
The remains were recovered in March 1993 by a search and recovery team with personnel from the identification lab and Joint Task Force-Full Accounting based at Camp Smith, as well as personnel from Vietnam.
Park's wife, son and granddaughter will be at the 1:30 p.m. repatriation ceremony at Punchbowl. The ceremony will include the transfer of Park's remains from the United States to South Korea, a joint color guard, and the playing of both countries' national anthems.
AIR FORCE
New PACOM deputy selected
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has announced that the president nominated Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert R. Dierker for appointment to lieutenant general with assignment as deputy commander for U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith.
Dierker is NATO's assistant chief of staff, operations division, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Casteau, Belgium.
NAVY
Park celebrates Bowfin's 60th
The USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the sub known as the "Pearl Harbor Avenger."
On July 23, 1942, construction began on the Bowfin, SS-287, at Portsmouth Navy Yard in Virginia. On Dec. 7, 1942, Bowfin was launched.
The museum will celebrate the anniversary through May 1 of next year with activities and ceremonies.
The Bowfin is credited with sinking 44 enemy ships during World War II.
Vision restored in Indonesia
Some citizens of Surabaya, Indonesia have a Tripler Army Medical Center Navy doctor to thank for helping improve their vision.
Assistant Chief of Ophthalmology Capt. Karl A. Holzinger and his team of four Navy medical healthcare providers from Portsmouth, Va.; San Diego; and Hawai'i were in Indonesia May 23 to June 3 for Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercises.
The Navy and Marine Corps participate in yearly CARAT humanitarian missions.
The team, which included two ophthalmologists and an Indonesian physician, saw approximately 1,000 patients, and Holzinger and the other doctors performed 160 cataract surgeries.
When the patients took off their eye patches, "they were so happy (with their sight)," Holzinger said. "There were a lot of smiles and thanks after the surgeries. The people are so appreciative and good-hearted."
MARINES
Information sought on man
Marine Corps Base Hawai'i will dedicate three streets to fallen Marines on Aug. 26.
The base is looking for information on one of the Marines, Sgt. William Antone Kekahuna, a graduate of Saint Louis School who was born in Honolulu on Dec. 12, 1938. He was killed in action in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam on May 6, 1968.
Kekahuna was married to Pamela Ann Wong in 1959. Efforts to find her have been unsuccessful.
Anyone with information on any of Kekahuna's family members is asked to call 257-8840.
