Posted on: Monday, June 14, 2004
Kane'ohe Marines await their turn at war
By William Cole
Advertiser Military writer
The Marine Corps, stretched thin by two wars, has 25,000 troops in Iraq and another 5,000 on the way. In Afghanistan, there are 4,000 Marines.
Army units are having yearlong tours extended, total U.S. troop numbers in Iraq are on the rise, and the next round of rotations is to be determined.
Marine Sgt. Daniel Gibson, based at Kane'ohe Bay, doesn't have to be a math whiz to know it's a matter of when, and not if, he'll go.
"I think the general thinking is pretty much everyone is going to be sent over (to the Middle East) one way or another," said Gibson, 23, who's with Combat Service Support Group 3.
While Schofield Barracks' 25th Infantry Division (Light) is now distributed between Iraq and Afghanistan, the nearly 7,000 Marines of Marine Corps Base Hawai'i remain ready at Kane'ohe Bay.
John Pike, director of the Virginia-based military think tank GlobalSecurity.org, said he doubts the Hawai'i Marines will remain out of the war zones.
"At the rate we're going, everyone's going to get an opportunity to get a campaign medal," Pike said.
Some already are deployed. About 150 Marines from the 3rd Radio Battalion are in Iraq, as well as a number of individuals.
One of those radio battalion Marines, Lance Cpl. Daniel Powell, 22, received a Purple Heart last Monday for shrapnel wounds received in a mortar attack in Iraq in May.
Officials here, though, say there are no large-scale deployment orders for Hawai'i-based Marines.
"Right now, as far as we know at this moment in time, there are no plans for Marine Corps Base Hawai'i Marines — other than the ones who are deployed — to go to Iraq," said base spokesman Gunnery Sgt. Rhys Evans.
That hasn't stopped Marines and their families from thinking about it. And worrying. And planning for it.
Gibson is taking leave in July to visit his parents in Colorado Springs because he knows he is likely to be deployed soon as an individual replacement.
Gibson works with Marine Corps Community Services and could work at a base exchange or travel by convoy delivering store goods from base to base.
"I've had people go for six months and come back, and two others have gone to supplement those two coming back," Gibson said. "As long as the (troop) numbers stay constant over there, they are going to rotate as much as possible to lower the stress on families."
With the uncertainty ahead, Karen Rochon has seen a change in the way her two children interact with their father. Gunnery Sgt. Leo Rochon, 42, is operations chief for Marine Aircraft Group 24.
"The difference with my children I would say would be when they started watching all the other daddies moving out," said Karen Rochon. "They just kind of gravitated more to their father. They appreciate their father more than they used to."
Leo Rochon went on a trip to the Pentagon, "and they asked, 'Are you coming back?' They are on pins and needles," added Karen Rochon, who trains "key volunteers" to help families on the home front.
The Pentagon has accelerated the deployment of two Marine Expeditionary Units to Iraq.
The San Diego-based USS Belleau Wood Expeditionary Strike Group with the 11th MEU and 2,200 Marines stopped in Hawai'i on June 4 and pulled out days later, heading for Iraq.
The 24th MEU and a similar number of Marines out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., also are deploying to the Middle East.
A Marine on board the USS Essex in Singapore asked visiting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on June 4 if the Marines on board would start rotating into Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The demand is considerable for ground forces — capable ground forces — the kind that you represent, and at the moment the Marines are, I believe, on a ribbon ... of a seven-month service over there," Rumsfeld said. "And I suppose the answer to your question depends on how long we're there... ."
About 800 to 900 Kane'ohe Bay Marines deploy to locations like Okinawa on a rotating basis for six to seven months.
The 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment is deployed to Okinawa now, and the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment — slated to be the battalion landing team for the 31st MEU — is expected to deploy later this month.
During Operation Desert Storm, about 7,600 Kane'ohe Marines were deployed. Hawai'i-based Marines in Task Force Taro were the first to cross the mined Iraqi-Kuwait border.
GlobalSecurity's Pike said there's no way to gauge how many of Hawai'i Marines would be sent to the Middle East.
"They are working the Iraq situation on a week by week basis," Pike said, "and the problem with Iraq is you've got good days and then you've got bad days — as in, we just got a United Nations resolution for the next phase of the occupation, so that looks good."
On the other hand, the Kurds are chafing over independence concerns and a slew of militias have agreed to disarm — but not that of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf, about which the United States is worried the most, Pike said.
"Which one of those a month from now is going to turn out to be the main headline?" Pike added, pointing to the uncertainty ahead.
Michael Pavkovic, director of the diplomacy and military studies program at Hawai'i Pacific University, also believes Hawai'i Marines are likely to see duty in the Middle East.
"There's only so many troops to go around, and I think we've pretty much exhausted any other units we might pull in, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least if (Hawai'i Marines) went over there," he said.
Whatever comes, Karen Rochon said the Marines and their families will cope. "We learn to network with each other."
Marines, often called the "nation's 911 force," regularly deal with uncertainty anyway.
" 'What ifs' is what we're about," Karen Rochon said.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
