Posted on: Saturday, October 23, 2004
Rest in peace, home from war
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
For the second time this week, a Hawai'i soldier who died in the Middle East was mourned at home.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser The Pearl City man and another Schofield Barracks soldier, Staff Sgt. Brian S. Hobbs, 31, of Mesa, Ariz., were killed in the town of Miam Do.
Well-wishers filled two rooms to capacity at Borthwick on Thursday, and a line of people wound outside and around the corner. Yesterday, before a burial at Hawai'i State Veterans Cemetery in Kane'ohe with military honors, at least 100 more attended a final service for Fernandez.
"The spirit of Ka'eo has touched us all. That we know," said his aunt, Robin Acosta.
Fernandez, a married father of two, was proud to be Hawaiian, and proud to be serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, family said. He is the son of former Air Force members, and the grandson of a Marine who fought in the Korean War.
Fernandez and Hobbs were two of four Schofield Barracks soldiers to die in combat in less than a week's time.
Capt. Christopher B. Johnson, 29, of Excelsior Springs, Mo., and Chief Warrant Officer William I. Brennan, 36, of Bethlehem, Conn., were killed in Iraq last Saturday when their OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter collided with another helicopter.
A series of services
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser Pvt. 2 Jeungjin "Nikky" Kim, a Hawai'i resident with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea, was killed in Ar Ramadi, Iraq on Oct. 6. Kim, 23, was buried here Wednesday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
"Improvised explosive devices" or roadside bombs — used with deadly effectiveness in both war zones — also injured three Schofield soldiers on Wednesday in the Paktika province of Afghanistan.
The three are with Combined Task Force Thunder's 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry ("Wolfhounds"), out of Orgun-E near the Pakistan border. One soldier is in critical condition at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and another is in stable condition there, an official said. The third is in serious condition at Bagram Air Base.
Twenty-three soldiers with Hawai'i ties have been killed in the Middle East since the March 2003 start of the war in Iraq. Sixteen soldiers died in Iraq, six in Afghanistan and one in Kuwait.
At the service for Fernandez yesterday, Pastor Grant Lee tried to make sense of the loss. Koa-framed and lei-draped pictures of Fernandez in Army camouflage and with his wife and children flanked his flag-draped casket.
"We are gathered here this morning with a lot of broken hearts," Lee said. "The horror of war has literally taken away Kyle Ka'eo Fernandez.
"It's a time of tension, and on the one hand, our broken hearts — Why? How come, God?" Lee said. "And on the other hand, we're here to say, 'OK, God, you're OK because you have embraced your beloved Ka'eo forever, and when it's our turn to go, we'll be together.' "
Enlisted in March 2001
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser Although he loved his whole family, "it was Celeste and the kids that made him tick," said Fernandez's uncle, Kimo DuPont. Fernandez was supposed to come home Dec. 7 for two weeks leave.
DuPont said he attended a service on Tuesday for his nephew at Schofield Barracks, where a fellow soldier spoke about Fernandez, saying something "so simple and uncomplicated, but so exactly accurate."
"He said that Ka'eo had the ability to make friends wherever he went. That was Ka'eo." That even applied to Afghanistan, where he shared food and water with children, relatives said.
Two Air Force Reserve members, Tech Sgt. Katherine Vanmeerten and Senior Airman Jaylyn Hiapo, who had attended Pearl City Highlands Intermediate with Fernandez, said his death hits close to home.
"You just don't think it will happen to one of your friends. It kind of makes you wake up (to the fact) a lot of people are out there fighting a war," said Vanmeerten, 26.
She remembered Fernandez's love for his wife, Celeste. "They were always together," she said.
Hiapo, also 26, said she's more worried for her brother now. He's in the Army and deploying to Iraq in April.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
Several hundred people turned out at Borthwick Mortuary Thursday night to pay respects to Spc. Kyle Ka'eo Fernandez, 26, who died Oct. 14 in Afghanistan when the Humvee he was driving hit a mine.
These M-16A1 rifles were later used in a salute by 25th Infantry Division pallbearers, seen carrying the casket of Spc. Kyle Ka'eo Fernandez to his committal ceremony at the Hawai'i State Veterans Cemetery.
He never wanted his mother, Noe, to worry, and when she broke down on the phone, she recalled him saying: "What, Mom, why you crying for? You know I'm the Hawaiian Superman."
Kyle Ka'eo Fernandez
A funeral service for Hobbs is set for today in Arizona, a service for Brennan is scheduled Monday in Connecticut and Johnson will be remembered Tuesday at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
Military pallbearers carry the casket of Spc. Kyle Ka'eo Fernandez to a waiting hearse at Borthwick Mortuary.
Fernandez enlisted in the Army in March of 2001 and was assigned to Company C, 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment. He had met his wife, Celeste, at Pearl City High School. The couple has two children, Kyla, 4, and Keahi, 13 months.
Mourners at the funeral for Spc. Fernandez wore these purple ribbons with white dove.
