Hawai'i Army Guard bound for Afghanistan
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
In her 20 years, Roselani Moniz of Wai'anae has been to Las Vegas and California, but not much farther.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
That's about to change later this month when she and more than 50 other mostly citizen soldiers from Company B, 193rd Aviation of the Hawai'i Army National Guard deploy to Afghanistan.
Roselani Moniz said she is "excited, I guess, for the experience."
Major fighting has ended in Afghanistan, but the soldiers of the helicopter maintenance company — making its first combat deployment — know there is still danger and uncertainty.
Moniz, a supply specialist in the Guard and an inventory taker out of uniform, said she is "excited, I guess, for the experience — just being in a different country and seeing what it's really going to be like."
Moniz got engaged in May, and had thought about a New Year's Eve wedding, but that timing is doubtful. Now she has to worry about living and working conditions in a Third-World country.
"I'm a little scared," she said yesterday at Wheeler Army Airfield, "but I've got to go for it and give it the best I've got."
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Sgt. John Oliveros Jr., 28, who works full time for the Guard as a mechanic, previously had been in the Marines and was deployed to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Hawaii Army National Guard members of Company B, 193rd Aviation, from left, Sgt. John Oliveros of Wai'anae, Spc. Chris Ikeda of Kalihi and Pfc. Enrique Banaticla and Pfc. James Tactacan, both of Waipahu, will be among more than 50 troops deployed to Afghanistan this month. Oliveros is a CH-47 Chinook helicopter mechanic noncommissioned officer in charge of other CH-47 mechanics, including Ikeda, Banaticla and Tactacan.
Oliveros said he is "just wondering if we're going to be in with the people there — just because you see on the news, people sneaking up, acting like they are friendly when they are not."
The deployment to Afghanistan came as a surprise for some. More than 600 Hawai'i Air Guard personnel and more than 400 Army Guard troops were mobilized after 9-11 for homeland defense and overseas duty. Of the 150 to 200 Hawai'i Guard members deployed to Southwest Asia, about a dozen remain in the region.
"We were kind of hoping we would get called up, and it passed us in the beginning," Oliveros said. "So I kind of got stuck on 'they're not going to take us.' "
Maj. Chuck Anthony, a Guard spokesman, said the unit's helicopter maintenance skills are needed for the CH-47 twin-rotor Chinooks that perform the best in Afghanistan's higher elevations.
The Hawai'i Army Guard has 14 of its own CH-47s, eight Black Hawks and about three OH-58 helicopters, but only the soldiers and some maintenance equipment are making the overseas trip.
The soldiers will be attached to the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum, N.Y. Four thousand soldiers from the 10th, replacing units of the 82nd Airborne Division, are tasked with rooting out remaining pockets of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.
The deployment represents the single largest unit activation for the Hawai'i Army Guard since the Vietnam War, when more than 3,000 soldiers were called up, and 1,100 went to Southeast Asia.
The deploying soldiers said they were told they could be gone up to a year, and with U.S. forces stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers like Oliveros wonder exactly when they'll be returning. About 11,500 coalition troops, about 8,500 of them American, are deployed to Afghanistan.
Oliveros, who also is from Wai'anae, made arrangements for his bills to be paid, and had to tell his 10-year-old son that he might not see him for a year — something he had to do when he was in the Marines. But he added it's harder now that his son is older and understands more.
Maj. Margaret Rains, commander of the 250-soldier unit, said a strong family readiness group is in place, and recent deployments have included exercises such as Balikatan in the Philippines and Cobra Gold in Thailand.
"Were on track. We've been a success at all stations," she said.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
