Briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
ALL SERVICES
Remains from Vietnam ID'd
The remains of Army Capt. Larry F. Lucas of Marmet, W. Va., a U.S. soldier previously unaccounted for from the war in Vietnam, have been identified by the U.S. Amy Central Identification Laboratory, Hawai'i, and are being returned to his family for burial with military honors.
Lucas and another crewman were flying a reconnaissance mission in their OV-1 Mohawk over Savannakhet Province, Laos, when they were hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire.
As the crew of another OV-1 watched, the aircraft entered a steep dive, crashed and exploded. The other crew member ejected before the crash and was rescued.
Between January 1990 and 1999, four joint U.S.-Lao on-site investigations were led by Joint Task Force-Full Accounting at Camp Smith.
During two of the investigations, excavations recovered aircraft debris, pilot-related artifacts and human remains.
Meanwhile, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting last week announced four recovery teams and one investigative team will deploy from Hawai'i this week for Laos.
Recovery excavations are scheduled at four primary sites in two Lao provinces with downed U.S. aircraft including two F-4B fighters, a B-57 bomber and an HH-3E heavy helicopter.
Investigative operations include 25 leads and 22 cases in five provinces. The mission marks the first use of a new base camp in southern Laos.
Since 1973, the remains of 737 American service members formerly listed as missing in Southeast Asia have been identified. There are still 1,904 Americans still missing or unaccounted for from the war in Southeast Asia.
WAR ON TERRORISM
Attack response plans ordered
The Washington Times reports that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz ordered all military bases in the United States to draw up emergency plans by mid-December for responding to large-scale attacks.
The plans are needed because of concerns that U.S. bases could be attacked in retaliation for any U.S. military action against Iraq, the Times reported.
In the past, the military services did not have to spend as much time worrying about U.S. bases because the threat was focused on foreign posts.
This comes after a task force report that the American transportation, water, food, power, communications and banking systems remain easy targets for terrorists despite increased security efforts during the past year.
The report was sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and chaired by former senators Gary Hart, D-Colo., and Warren Rudman, R-N.H.
"A year after 9/11, America remains dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a catastrophic attack on U.S. soil," the commission said. "In all likelihood, the next attack will result in even greater casualties and widespread disruption to our lives and economy."
The report noted that only a very small fraction of containers, trains, trucks and ships entering the country are searched, meaning that the chances are low of detecting a weapon of mass destruction.
ARMY
Shafter street to be renamed
U.S. Army Pacific will hold a dedication Nov. 10 at Fort Shafter to rename C Street as Hyland Lane in memory of Lt. Col. Stephen N. Hyland Jr.
Hyland, 45, died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon, where he was assigned to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel.
Hyland, a 20-year Army veteran who was from California, was assigned to U.S. Army Pacific from July 1997 to June 2000, and served the last two years as adjutant general.
The 10:15 a.m. dedication ceremony at Palm Circle is by invitation.
March planned to Makua
Some 450 soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry at Schofield Barracks will march 27 miles from Dillingham Airfield, around Kaena Point and along Farrington Highway to Makua Military Reservation over-night from Nov. 6 to 7.
The march, which the 25th Infantry Division (Light) says is part of routine readiness training, is not expected to cause traffic delays because the route will be traveled at night beginning at 6 p.m. on Nov. 6, and ending by 9 a.m. on Nov. 7.
Drivers, however, are asked to exercise caution along the route.
