Briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
NAVY
Navy welcomes 19 new chiefs
Nineteen sailors put on chief anchors during a pinning ceremony at Sharkey Theater at Pearl Harbor last week.
Surrounded by friends, family and shipmates, first-class petty officers from seven commands around O'ahu joined the fraternity.
The new responsibility earned with the pinning is not specified in official regulation, but rather in standards set by 100 years of the chief tradition.
"(Chiefs are) the ones that make this engine work," said Rear Adm. Robert T. Conway Jr., commanding officer of Navy Region Hawaii and commander of Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific.
ARMY
Army testing 8-wheel Stryker
The Army Test and Evaluation Command started a 16-day field test portion of a formal comparison between the new Stryker armored vehicle and the M113A3 armored personnel carrier Sept. 12 at Fort Lewis, Wash.
The Stryker is expected to be the centerpiece of a new fast-strike brigade coming to Hawai'i in which troops will be speeded to the battlefield in the eight-wheeled vehicles.
The Fort Lewis test, called the Medium Armored Vehicle Comparison Evaluation, is required by the 2001 National Defense Authorization Act.
The comparison started with a 50-mile road march on Sept. 13.
Two 44-man platoons from Company B, 1-24th Infantry Battalion, 25th Infantry Division (Light) will operate the sets of vehicles through simulated combat missions.
While the 25th Division is based at Schofield Barracks, some troops are assigned to Fort Lewis.
The report of the trial is expected to be completed in mid-November.
MARINES
Marines, sailors back after duty
After more than seven months deployed to areas throughout the Pacific, the Marines and sailors of 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, returned to Hawai'i two weeks ago.
The Unit Deployment Program takes infantry battalions and artillery batteries to Okinawa to serve on the "tip of the spear" for seven months, and fill the billet of the "go to war" units in the Pacific.
During the time the "3/3" was deployed, the Marines and sailors were formed as a Battalion Landing Team three times, and participated in six major exercises including: Millennium Edge in Tinian and Guam; Balikatan in the Philippines; the Korean Incremental Training Program; the Fuji Combined Arms Operation in Japan, and as the Ground Combat Element for the landing force of Cooperation Readiness Afloat Training, or CARAT.
While under way for CARAT, Hawai'i-based forces trained in Brunei, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, with stops in Hong Kong and Bali.
Families and friends said farewell, meanwhile, to Marines and sailors of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, as they departed for a new seven-month rotation.
ALL SERVICES
Military families assess schools
A survey seeking feedback from Hawai'i-based military parents with school-age children in grades 5 to 12 has been completed.
The survey was conducted between May and June and is part of a larger Hawai'i schools study sponsored by U.S. Pacific Command designed to measure the impact of Hawaii's schools on the military community's quality of service.
The survey indicates military families see the following strengths in Hawai'i schools: student learns at school; student receives help to learn; teachers care and are well trained; students learn problem-solving skills; homework assignments are reasonable.
The study also indicates military families have five main areas of concern: textbook quality and quantity; student access to technology; facility maintenance; mutual respect among students; and challenging curriculum.
Town hall meetings at local military bases on O'ahu to discuss the results will be scheduled starting later this month.
The study supports the efforts of the Joint Venture Education Forum, a joint partnership between Pacific Command and the Department of Education to improve Hawai'i's schools.
