Hawai'i families face reality of Iraq conflict

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

As the countdown to war with Iraq continues, the tension grows not only for 250,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East, but also for people here such as Rowena Legaspi, the mother of two young boys.

"A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking it was like he was away at (force reconnaissance) school or something," the 'Ewa Beach resident said. "Now, the reality is hitting me — he's really there and they could be in harm's way."

There aren't a tremendous number of Hawai'i-based troops in the Persian Gulf — and defense experts say that probably won't change before a war starts — but it's no consolation to Hawai'i residents who have loved ones in the desert or on ships.

"I'm a little bit scared," Rowena Legaspi says, "just basically because of the unknown."

At least four Pearl Harbor-based ships and several submarines, nearly 550 Marines, 50 airmen and women from Hickam Air Force Base, about 80 Schofield Barracks soldiers, a Coast Guard cutter and hundreds of reservists and National Guard are, or soon will be in the Persian Gulf region as the clock ticks toward war.

Michael Pavkovic, director of the diplomacy and military studies program at Hawai'i Pacific University, thinks the deployment totals from Hawai'i will remain about where they are at, but could change after a war breaks out.

"At this point, I wouldn't expect a whole lot more in the way of call-ups," he said. "I think we probably have the force structure there that we're going to use."

Pavkovic, who believes that a war would be over fairly quickly, said there might be the need to augment forces as operations proceed, and that could mean more deployments from Hawai'i.

"We won't see an entire division picking up stakes and being put over there," he said. "But you might see companies or battalions or batteries moved, and I think you might see that still in follow-on forces."

Destroyers like the Pearl Harbor-based Paul Hamilton — on duty with the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier battle group in the Persian Gulf — could take part in an opening strike against Iraq with Tomahawk cruise missiles. The frigate Reuben James also is part of the battle group.

The guided missile destroyer USS O'Kane left Pearl Harbor on Jan. 17, and the cruiser USS Chosin, with more than 350 officers and sailors, deployed yesterday for the Gulf along with the San Diego-based aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

Seven of 18 Hawai'i-based attacks submarines: the Honolulu, Chicago, Cheyenne, Los Angeles, Key West, Columbia and Louisville, are operating in the western Pacific or the Gulf region. U.S. attack submarines accounted for more than a third of the Tomahawk missiles fired into Afghanistan during last year's war.

Lt. Gen. Earl B. Hailston, who oversees Marine operations for Central and Pacific commands, moved his headquarters and nearly half his staff of 500 from Camp Smith to Bahrain more than a year ago.

Forty Marine reservists from the 4th Force Reconnaissance Company and about 250 Kane'ohe Bay Marines from the 1st Radio Battalion are deployed to Kuwait.

The force reconnaissance Marines specialize in operations deep behind enemy lines, while the radio battalion provides communications support for Corps intelligence organizations and conducts electronic warfare.

"What we're seeing is really a changing overall deployment pattern in terms of the kind of enemy we're facing," Pavkovic said. "I think Afghanistan showed the next wave of military force — where we use a lot more special operations units."

Special operations and signals intelligence like the 4th Force and 1st Radio Battalion Marines "are (the type of units) that fit into this new tempo and method of warfare," Pavkovic said.

Those units have done their best to maintain ties with home.

In Kuwait, the 1st Radio Battalion christened its base camp "Hale Koa" — House of the Warrior. The Hawai'i state flag flies over the compound.

"It is all a part of an effort to remember home and the loved ones we left behind," Lt. Col. Mark Aycock, the battalion's commanding officer, said in a March 4 letter to home.

Aycock said the Marines and sailors under his command "continue to impress me on a daily basis with their ingenuity and resourcefulness in overcoming the challenges of running a battalion such as ours in a field environment."

"No challenge seems to be too tough," he said. "Today, the (motor transport) mechanics are swapping out an engine in one of our (Humvees). Last week the engineers were running electrical power to the various workplaces. Sometimes they work in duststorms and once they had to work in a hailstorm."

Rowena Legaspi said the wives of the reserve force reconnaissance Marines deployed to the Middle East were getting together for a picnic this weekend.

Her husband called last Sunday to say hello.

"He said basically they are still waiting, all they've been doing is training," she said. "He said they actually got to go on to a real base, I guess sometime a couple of weeks ago, and the highlight of his day was eating ice cream.

"But they are in good spirits — he said they're always joking around, more than they should be. But that's the only way to get by. They are just waiting, too."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.