Colors home from Afghanistan
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD — Gen. Fred C. Weyand led the 25th Division to Vietnam in 1965, and for about five years, that's where the division flag stayed.
Photos by Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Not until Iraq and Afghanistan a year ago would the red and blue "Tropic Lightning" colors be flown again on a battlefield.
Maj. Gen. Eric T. Olson headed for his wife, Vicki, after his formation of 25th Infantry Division headquarters staff was dismissed during yesterday's homecoming at Wheeler Army Airfield. For the past year Olson served as the No. 2 U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
Yesterday, Maj. Gen. Eric T. Olson proudly returned the flag again, after a year of service in Afghanistan.
With the band playing the theme to "Rocky," Olson, the head of the 25th Infantry Division (Light); command Sgt. Maj. Franklin Ashe; and about 34 soldiers with their command staff marched into the same hangar at Wheeler where thousands of other soldiers and their families have reunited over the past several months.
"I'm under enormous pressure to be brief this afternoon," a beaming Olson told the crowd of family members waiting to hug loved ones again after a year.
The 25th Division is deploying back home "after scoring two significant victories in the global war on terrorism" — successful elections in Afghanistan in October and in Iraq in January, Olson said.
Olson, who was the No. 2 U.S. commander in Afghanistan in charge of combined Joint Task Force 76, asked those present to remember Hawai'i soldiers still in harm's way in Afghanistan and Iraq, and for a moment of silence for those killed.
Thirteen 25th Division soldiers were killed in Iraq, and the same number were killed in Afghanistan.
Only a small number of the 5,200 Schofield Barracks soldiers who deployed to Iraq early last year remain in the country, and the 5,800 soldiers in Afghanistan in recent weeks started to come home and will filter back through the summer.
Weyand
"It was a long year away," Olson said. "But the whole time that we were gone we felt tremendous support from the people of Hawai'i."
As other U.S. forces take up duty in Afghanistan, Olson said, "The first thing that needs to be done is we need to continue the progress against the Taliban. ... We are beating them, we've got to make sure we keep beating them."
Weyand, 88, who lives in Hawai'i and was at Wheeler yesterday, noted the role of women in the Army now, and the all-volunteer force today.
Olson and command Sgt. Maj. Franklin Ashe unfurled the "Tropic Lightning" flag of the 25th Infantry at yesterday's hangar ceremony. Olson said that during the division's yearlong deployment, the unit "felt tremendous support from the people of Hawai'i."
"These guys and gals are in (the Army) because they wanted to be here," Weyand said.
One distinct memory is the sendoff and welcome back to Hawai'i during the Vietnam years.
"The Vietnam War was not a popular war, but this community saw us off with flying colors, all the kudos, parades downtown," he said. "When they came back, they got the same reception."
Unfortunately, he said, "the job isn't done."
"These soldiers have to be prepared now, as you know, to go back within the next year, or whatever the time, whatever the needs require," said Weyand, who eventually became Army chief of staff.
The commander who replaces Olson in Afghanistan also has Hawai'i ties. Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, a 1972 Saint Louis School graduate and commander of the Vincenza, Italy-based Southern European Task Force (Airborne), recently took command of Combined Joint Task Force 76 — and remaining Hawai'i-based forces there.
"General Kamiya is kama'aina ... he is a tremendously bright guy," Olson said. "He's got a great operational background. Plus, he loves Hawai'i soldiers. He's going to be the perfect guy to step in behind me."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
