HAWAI'I BRIEFS
Marines train to replace casualties

Advertiser Staff

About 100 Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment at Kane'ohe Bay are training in California to be replacements for wounded or killed Marines in Iraq, officials said.

Seventeen Marines and one sailor with the Hawai'i-based 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment have been killed in Iraq since Oct. 24.

The 2/3 Marines, training in California, are expected to return this week to Hawai'i, and will deploy on an as-needed basis to Iraq, officials said.

About 1,000 1/3 Marines and sailors deployed to Okinawa in July as part of a routine rotational deployment, but were sent to Iraq as part of the U.S. force buildup for an assault on Fallujah that began Nov. 8 to re-take the rebel-held city.

HONOLULU

Inmate escapes from OCCC

State sheriff's deputies yesterday were looking for an inmate who escaped from O'ahu Community Correctional Center yesterday morning.

Michael Ventura, 25, a minimum security inmate, escaped through a fence at 8:35 a.m., state officials said. A piece of Ventura's uniform was found on the fence near Annex One, which is a minimum security area on the Foremost Dairy side of the facility.

On Dec. 14, Ventura was sentenced on third-degree assault charges and was scheduled to be released on Jan. 26.