Schofield soldier on R&R finally gets honeymoon

By Will Hoover
Advertiser North Shore Writer

For Katie Moore, yesterday was more than Good Friday. It was "fantastic."

Army Sgt. Dennis Moore, of Wahiawa, enjoyed his R&R at Hale'iwa Beach Park yesterday with his wife, Katie, and dog, Mudslide. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

"At first they said he was coming back," she said as the two ate pizza at Spaghettini in Hale'iwa. "Then they said he wasn't. I just found out on Wednesday that he'd be back Thursday evening. We're leaving for Maui on the 14th for our honeymoon. And this time he's going!"

"Seems like every time we were ready to take a honeymoon, I was deployed," said Dennis Moore, who is in his third tour to the Middle East since June 2002 — the first time to Afghanistan and two times since to Iraq.

For now the 23-year-old team leader with Schofield's Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, only wants to "be a tourist on Maui," wear casual clothes and not have to haul around 40-some pounds of gear, plus an extra 32 pounds of ammunition (a habit he developed after running out of bullets once in a firefight during one of his first two Middle East deployments with the 3rd Ranger Battalion out of Fort Benning, Ga).

Moore is among the first Schofield Barracks soldiers to get a 15-day "rest and recuperation" trip back home as part of the yearlong deployment to Iraq, and it comes as U.S. troops are seeing some of their heaviest fighting in months. Some of the fiercest action has come in the restive Sunni cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, where Marines fought pitched battles with insurgents. It was also in Fallujah where four American civilians were killed last week by guerrillas, and their bodies were mutilated by a mob.

The irony of the Moores' perpetually interrupted honeymoon plans is that it was Katie who talked Dennis into re-enlisting. After his second deployment ended in April 2003, Moore planned to leave the Army, get a college degree and maybe become a teacher or a police officer.

But Katie, 23, who was a waitress at an Applebie's restaurant in Columbus, Ga., at the time of their marriage on Dec. 28, 2002, said an enlisted soldier she waited on one night told her he was going to Hawai'i because nobody had deployed from the Aloha State since the Vietnam War.

"I said, 'Hey Dennis — let's go to Hawai'i.' I thought this would be like a three-year honeymoon," she said.

"Well, it's the thought that counts," quipped Dennis Moore. "So I re-enlist and I come here, and I was deployed ... to Iraq for a year."

These days the Moores are overjoyed at the opportunity to have a three-day honeymoon on a Neighbor Island. But the soldier has no illusions about what's in store for him when he returns.

"The last few days have been pretty rough over there," said Moore, who knew Pfc. John D. Amos II, 20, who on April 4 became the first Hawai'i-based soldier killed by hostile action. Morale has been up and down, he said. The 15-day R&R program for soldiers who will be in Iraq for a year has been a welcome relief.

"The Shiites have been trying to get everybody to fight against the coalition. And it's getting a lot worse than it has been.

"The Kurdish people, they're all for the coalition. But the Arabs and the Shiites hate us and want us to go home. They don't realize that we're there to help. They think we're there to take over."

Moore said 90 percent of the Iraqi people in Kirkuk have been friendly toward Americans and coalition fighters. But the opposing insurgents are dangerous and foment tensions, which he said are escalating.

"This is just my personal opinion, but I think there is going to be a civil war soon," said Moore, who wonders about the scheduled June 30 date for returning sovereignty to Iraq. "That's going to be real hard. If they can't get along now, you know they aren't going to get along three months from now."

For the next two weeks, though, Moore wants to spend time with his wife and keep his mind focused on the simple pleasures of freedom that others take for granted.

"I've got two weeks off, so I'm going to enjoy it. I plan to go to the beach, surf a little, play some golf, and eat some real food. Then, I'm going to go back to Kirkuk and just do my job."

He paused, then added, "I'm just glad I'm not going to Fallujah."

Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038, or e-mail at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.