Posted on: Friday, November 5, 2004

Hawai'i soldiers returning

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

It could be a very happy new year for Schofield Barracks soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team in Iraq.

Maj. Neal O'Brien, spokesman for Schofield's 1st Infantry Division higher headquarters in Tikrit, said yesterday that the Hawai'i soldiers should leave Iraq in late December, pending the arrival of their replacement unit, the Idaho National Guard's 116th Brigade Combat Team.

That's several months earlier than some families expected, and lops a month off the full year the soldiers had anticipated being on the ground in Iraq. Even though many of the soldiers deployed in January from Hawai'i, that countdown didn't officially start until the transfer of authority from the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Kirkuk on Feb. 19.

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team has more than 4,000 soldiers. More than 5,200 soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division (Light) and U.S. Army Hawai'i are serving in Iraq; another 5,800 are in Afghanistan.

The news of the redeployment from Iraq is being greeted with cautious optimism.

"I've heard rumors that they are going to start trickling in in early January or late December," said Maria Olipas, who lives in the Kunia area and whose husband, Romel, 30, is a staff sergeant with the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry ("Wolfhounds"), at Forward Operating Base McHenry about 40 miles southwest of Kirkuk.

"But nothing's ever confirmed when we hear this — unless I hear it from (the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Scott Leith)," Maria Olipas said. "It's rumor — and hope. We're crossing our fingers."

O'Brien's statement was the first indication of a date for the return of the Schofield soldiers. The Pentagon recently announced that 6,500 troops would be kept in Iraq through elections there scheduled for Jan. 27. O'Brien, in an e-mail to The Advertiser, said the extension applies to elements of the 1st Infantry Division but not to the 2nd Brigade, which he said would return in late December.

It wasn't clear if the redeployment timeline also applies for Hawai'i troops not part of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, like soldiers with the 84th Engineer Battalion. Schofield Barracks public affairs did not return calls for comment yesterday.

Earlier, Maria Olipas, who along with her husband grew up in 'Ewa Beach, said she thought the soldiers were going to be in Iraq until February or March.

"Probably just last month is when I started to hear the rumors that they might come home earlier," she said.

She's already planning for her husband's return.

"I'm excited," she said. "I'm planning a big party. Like huge. Bigger than when he got home for R&R."

Carlos Chevez, whose 25-year-old brother, Rogelio, is a specialist with the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry ("Golden Dragons"), in Kirkuk, said he is "very happy they are coming home sooner than later."

"We all thought it was going to be January or later," said the California man.

Capt. Deron Haught, 37, home in Hawai'i with his wife and two kids on two weeks of R&R leave from Kirkuk, said he's a little apprehensive about the redeployment time frame.

"I'm a little pessimistic by nature," he said. "I always try to plan for the worst." He couldn't confirm the late December return, but added: "It's really good news. I absolutely hope it's true."

The 4,300 soldiers of the National Guard's 116th Brigade, which also includes soldiers from Montana, Oregon, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have been training since early July for the Iraq mission.

Idaho newspapers reported that the brigade will begin moving into Kuwait later this month en route to Kirkuk. Several weeks are likely to be spent at desert camps in Kuwait in a fine-tuning of skills. The brigade is expected to replace the Schofield soldiers by January.

The Associated Press reported that a military and terrorism authority in Idaho claimed the Idaho National Guard citizen soldiers are not prepared for combat in Iraq.

In a letter to The Idaho Statesman, Maj. Gen. Jack Kane, Idaho's adjutant general, rejected the claim, saying the retired Army engineer and director of the Martin Institute for Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at the University of Idaho who made it "has not seen the intensive training our citizen soldiers have undergone in Texas and Louisiana."

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