About 20 in Wheeler unit receive orders for Kuwait

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

More than 20 civilian workers and active-duty soldiers from the Army's 599th Transportation Group at Wheeler Army Airfield are the latest from Hawai'i to get orders to the Middle East.

The team, with about another 20 Army and Navy reservists from the Mainland, will deploy in mid-June to the Port of Ash Shuibab in Kuwait.

Guy Cabral, administrative officer for the 599th, said the unit will oversee cargo shipped through Kuwait bound for Iraq and cargo headed for Afghanistan via other ports.

The dozen or so civilian workers will spend six months in Kuwait; the deployment may be longer for the military personnel.

Cabral said this will be the first wartime mission and longest deployment for the 599th, part of the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, since the unit arrived in Hawai'i in 1991.

Those with the 599th's headquarters staff who make the trip will be living in air-conditioned, wood-floored tents at Camp Spearhead.

Cabral said the civilian employees are considered "emergency essential."

"When they are hired, they are told they are subject to do this type of work," he said.