Briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
AIR FORCE
Pacific forces training in India
Pacific Air Forces is sponsoring and participating in the first "Cope India" exercise today through Friday at Agra Air Base in India.
A variety of aircraft are participating in the exercise, including a Hawai'i Air National Guard C-130 Hercules transport.
More than 150 Air Force personnel from Hawai'i, Yokota Air Base in Japan and Andersen Air Force Base in Guam are taking part in the exercises.
The first such exercises between the United States and India were held in Eastern India after the Sino-Indian border war in 1962.
President Clinton in 1998 stopped weapons sales to the region after India and Pakistan tested nuclear devices.
President Bush lifted the sanctions after the Sept. 11 attacks, and increased exercises with India. The Indian army and air force trained recently with U.S. forces in Alaska.
ARMY
Troops return from Bosnia
Friends and family greeted soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment after they returned recently from a seven-month deployment to Bosnia.
The battalion was the last contingent of 25th Infantry Division (Light) soldiers to return from Stabilization Force 11 peacekeeping duties in Bosnia.
More than 1,000 Schofield Barracks troops served in Bosnia as part of the division's first European deployment.
NAVY
Submarine conference held
Thirteen nations participated in the second annual Asia Pacific Submarine Conference last month in Ho-nolulu.
The conference focused on submarine safety and rescue.
"The countries attending this conference have a total of 256 submarines in 29 classes," said Rear Adm. John Padgett III, commander of Submarine Force Pacific. "This illustrates the magnitude of the challenge and highlights the need for cooperation in submarine rescue."
Cmdr. Timothy P. Hagan, the conference coordinator, said few nations in the Pacific possess submarine rescue capability that is sufficient to rescue personnel from a disabled submarine without assistance.
Hagan said the United States has that ability, and "has a history of exercising this capability with other nations in the European and Pacific regions."
Hagan stressed the importance of cooperation in the Pacific.
Officer awarded special gold pin
Ensign Erin Rikard, the gunnery and force protection officer on the Pearl Harbor-based destroyer USS Hopper, earned her surface warfare officer pin two days before returning home from a six-month deployment to the northern Arabian Sea.
The milestone for all junior officers took on extra meaning for Rikard: the gold pin she was awarded was the same pin worn 24 years ago by her father, Capt. Rick Rikard, commanding officer of the USS Vella Gulf.
Capt. Rikard sent his pin to the Hopper while it was still in the Arabian Sea in the hope his daughter would achieve the goal.
"It was a very touching surprise to receive my dad's first SWO pin," said Ensign Rikard. "In a way it made it feel like he was there with me even though we are on two different oceans 5,000 miles away."
The Hopper has 70 women as part of the ship's company, and one third of its officers are women.
ARMED SERVICES
Photographers shoot for book
Top military and civilian photographers tomorrow will capture 24 hours in the U.S. armed forces at sites throughout the United States and across the globe.
The work of more than 25 military and 90 civilian photographers will be showcased in "A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces," a coffee-table book to be published in May 2003.
Among the civilian photographers will be 15 Pulitzer Prize winners.
The photos will be taken at 70 sites in the United States and 55 international sites around the world.
