Briefs
Advertiser Staff
ARMY
Shafter field to be renamed
The Army's 228th birthday will be commemorated in a baseball-themed ceremony Thursday, re-naming Shafter Bowl at Fort Shafter after a Hawai'i Nisei World War II hero.
At the 10 a.m. ceremony hosted by Lt. Gen. James L. Campbell, commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, Shafter Bowl will be renamed Joe Takata Field in honor of the late Sgt. Shigeo "Joe" Takata, a standout Hawai'i baseball player who many believed had major-league potential.
Takata, who was born in Waialua and graduated from McKinley High School, was a member of the famed 100th Infantry Battalion, also known as the Purple Heart Battalion for the numbers of casualties suffered during World War II. He was leading his squad during the Salerno-to-Cassino campaign in Italy when he was mortally wounded.
Takata continued guiding his men through intense gunfire to locate enemy positions, the Army said. He later died from his wounds and was awarded the Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary gallantry in the face of the enemy. He is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
MARINES
Squadron returns to Kane'ohe
More than 300 crew members of Patrol Squadron 9 (VP-9) were scheduled to return home to Marine Corps Base Hawai'i in Kane'ohe over the weekend after a six-month deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
VP-9, which includes 10 P-3C aircraft and more than 500 crew members and support personnel, began arriving home early last week. The Golden Eagles of VP-9 flew long-range antisubmarine warfare, intelligence gathering, maritime interdiction and search-and-rescue missions. The squadron flew more than 600 hours in support of missions in the Philippines, and provided "eyes in the sky" for U.S. and allied naval ships transiting Southeast Asian waterways on their way to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
NAVY
Sub completes test launches
The Pearl Harbor attack submarine USS Columbus recently completed two test launches of Tomahawk missiles off the coast of Southern California as the Navy plans for an upgraded version of the cruise missile. Both tests were part of the Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System operational evaluation.
Tactical Tomahawks, expected to be delivered to the fleet in spring of 2004, will have the ability to receive target updates, loiter over an area, or be re-directed to a new target while in flight.
Four Seabees return from Iraq
Four Seabees from the 30th Naval Construction Regiment based at Pearl Harbor recently returned from Iraq. One of the returning Seabees, Cmdr. Joseph Campbell, hadn't seen his family since shipping out last October.
Transferring to Hawai'i from his former duty station in Virginia, Campbell had only been here two weeks before receiving orders to go forward.
Campbell, along with Chief Warrant Officer William Johnson, Chief Builder Michael Rodrigo, and Senior Chief Equipment Operator Bryon Eichelberger, were among 12 members assigned to a task force that was a subordinate unit of the Marine Engineering Group.
