Hawai'i soldiers begin Iraq duty
BY Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i's 2,200 National Guard soldiers have safely completed a convoy from Kuwait to Iraq and arrived there without incident, officials said yesterday.
Photo courtesy Kyle Yonemura
The soldiers of the 29th Brigade Combat Team began leaving Kuwait last week for their yearlong assignments in Iraq. The timing of the convoys was not released by the Army for security reasons, but Guard spokesman Maj. Chuck Anthony confirmed yesterday that everyone has arrived in Iraq.
With Sgt. Mark Reed of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry, playing his bagpipe, members of the 29th Brigade Combat Team began leaving Camp Buehring, Kuwait, last week for assignments in Iraq. The convoys took about three days to complete the journey.
"There weren't any incidents; they didn't come under attack; there weren't any exploding devices," Anthony said. "A typical convoy takes about three days, so three days without any incidents and that's for all the different units that were going up."
The 29th Brigade comprises 3,600 soldiers — 2,200 from Hawai'i — who have been assigned to three general areas.
The 29th Support Battalion is at Logistical Supply Area Anaconda, which is about 50 miles north of Baghdad and will serve as the 29th Brigade's headquarters. The 100th Battalion will provide security in the Anaconda area, Anthony said.
"They'll be doing security around Balad, or Anaconda, so that could mean 'going outside the wire' on a regular basis," Anthony said.
The 2nd Battalion, 299th Infantry, is in Baghdad and will provide security for U.S. areas there, Anthony said. Members of the 1st Battalion, 487th Field Artillery, remained in Kuwait to provide security, he said.
After months of training, Anthony said, the troops were prepared for their journey to Iraq and "were anxious to get the clock started."
Eve Ikeda of Kalihi hopes that clock moves quickly because her husband, Master Sgt. Craig Ikeda, and son, Pvt. Jared Ikeda, are both in Iraq. Craig Ikeda, 57, is stationed at Anaconda; Jared, 20, is in the motorized infantry and stationed at Camp Victory South in Baghdad.
Eve Ikeda said that she has kept in contact with her husband and son and that both are doing fine.
"My husband is counting his year by the week," she said. "Every Sunday when he takes his laundry in to be done, it's, 'Well, we got 50 more laundry pickups.' "
She acknowledges that her son is at greater risk than her husband. In one e-mail, she said, Jared Ikeda questioned why he had signed up to be a gunner.
"I reminded him that when he was in high school, if it wasn't fun then it was boring. There was no in-between for him and so there was no reality in his decision, even though we had told him that it's not going to be fun," Eve Ikeda said. "So he's learned the reality of it. But he's doing fine. He's doing well. We have a lot of people praying for him and encouraging him."
Craig and Eve Ikeda also have two daughters and an older son, Christopher, who spent nine months of active duty with the National Guard in Afghanistan.
Reach Curtis Lum at 525-8025 or culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.
