Pacific Island units begin to mark off long road till home
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
SCHOFIELD BARRACKS — For the second time in a week, Joan Dubrall said goodbye yesterday to her husband, Jesse, an Army reservist with the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry, as he prepared to ship off to war in Iraq.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
She flew in last week from Saipan for the first farewell. Then she returned with 1-year-old daughter Jenisha in time to say goodbye again in the courtyard of B Quad.
Army machine-gunner Sgt. Ignatius Godinet of American Samoa sits with his daughter Mary at Schofield Barracks before shipping out to begin his year-plus service in the Iraq war.
"It's what, about 7,000 miles from here?" Joan Dubrall said. "My husband really missed her (Jenisha), and he begged me to bring her. I had just a few hours to pack."
The few extra days together as a family were worth it, and the Dubralls — like hundreds, if not thousands of other deploying National Guard and Reserve soldiers — will have another chance at togetherness before the year-long deployment to Iraq actually begins.
The citizen-soldiers of the Hawai'i Army National Guard's 29th Separate Infantry Brigade — with the 100th, 442nd, as an attached unit — are being given two weeks off at Christmastime.
Reunion awaited
Family ties are extensive within the unit, and many already are jumping at the chance to come home. Hundreds of relatives turned out yesterday to give a last hug, and lei were everywhere, piled on soldiers and even adorning a bunch of M-4 rifles stacked tepee-style on the field.
"I do know that a whole bunch have made plane reservations already (to come home), easily hundreds," said Maj. Chuck Anthony, a Guard spokesman.
Jesse Dubrall, a 34-year-old private first class, said 40 or more soldiers with Company E drawn from Saipan and Guam had made plans. "And we have the farthest trip to go home," said the police officer from Saipan.
The Dubralls booked early, and are paying $1,004 for roundtrip airfare from Fort Bliss, Texas, where the Pacific soldiers will train for at least a month before heading to Fort Polk, La., in January for combat certification, and then the Balad area north of Baghdad in February or March.
"But a lot of wives I've spoken to are spending over $2,000," Joan Dubrall said.
The deployment of 2,500 of about 3,000 soldiers with the 29th represents the biggest combat mission for Hawai'i-based Guard and Reserve members since World War II. Only units such as the band and a rear detachment will stay behind.
About 300 of the soldiers left yesterday on a charter flight for El Paso, Texas. At least one and sometimes two flights a day have been leaving from Hickam Air Force Base since Saturday. The last flight out is tomorrow.
As much as 18 months away will be hard on the close-knit soldiers and their spouses back home. It will be hard times for Tina Ioane.
The 'Ewa Beach woman said goodbye to her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Ioane, 46, who's with Delta Company out of Fort Shafter Flats with the 100th, 442nd.
The couple has a son who was just in Iraq with a Germany-based unit. Nemaia Vivao, one of Tina Ioane's three brothers, is with the Army Reserve's 411th Engineer Battalion in the country, and the two others, Tauveve and Taliese Vivao, are heading there as Hawai'i Guard soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 487th Field Artillery.
"It's heartbreaking, but they want to serve their country. They are my only brothers, and they are going to be in Iraq," she said, wiping away tears.
She said it's scary to hear the news out of Iraq.
"Every time there's a car bomb, somebody gets shot at, it's disturbing," she said. "Everywhere (in Iraq) there is death. The only thing that keeps us alive and keeps us going is staying tuned with our faith in God."
Antonio Ioane, a corrections officer outside the military, said he was going to try to come home in June as part of the Army's Rest and Recuperation program to coincide with the graduation of two of his children from Farrington High School.
It's another opportunity Hawai'i-based soldiers will have to come home — in this case, for 15 days.
"Everybody gets R&R, just like the 25th (Infantry Division, Light)," Anthony said. "Some guys probably will start getting R&R after three months or so."
Sgt. 1st Class Kalani Pacheco, 39, plans to spend his two weeks with his wife, Liberta, in Las
Vegas. Pacheco, from 'Ewa Beach, was in the 100th, 442nd, left in 2001 and was part of the U.S. Forces Korea support unit based out of Fort Shafter when he was "cross-leveled" back to the 100th for the deployment to Iraq.
Asked if the two weeks back home is a lifesaver, Kalani Pacheco said, "Very much."
"It's critical, because that's going to be the last time we see each other before they get deployed to Iraq," added Liberta Pacheco.
Airfare costs high
Spc. Roman Benavente, 24, from Saipan, said he was going to go to Idaho and visit relatives for the Christmas break rather than go back home.
Airfare to Saipan is too expensive, he said.
"That's one of the reasons I'm not going home," said Benavente, of the 100th, 442nd's Company E. "It would cost me about $2,000, and I don't have that kind of money." It's costing him about $400 to go to Idaho.
"Any break that they give us is a good thing," Benavente added. "It's a chance to see our families one last time before we go out to the theater."
In unit formations, the soldiers sang "Remember Pearl Harbor" and the "Go For Broke!" anthem that celebrates the most highly decorated unit for its size in World War II:
"Four Forty-Second Infantry;
We are the boys of Hawai'i nei;
We will fight for you;
And the Red, White and Blue;
And we'll go to the front;
And back to Honolulu.
With that, they boarded seven buses — six blue and one white — and with horns blaring, shakas waving, tears flowing, and Saipan, Guam and American Samoan flags flying, the soldiers pulled out of the quad.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
