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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, June 12, 2006

MILITARY BRIEFS
'Go For Broke' legacy carried on

Advertiser Staff

The seventh of eight C-17s will be delivered to Hickam Air Force Base on Wednesday with a name that reflects a proud Hawai'i military history back to World War II.

The aircraft will be named "Spirit of Go For Broke" in honor of the famed 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which fought through seven major campaigns in Europe, received 9,486 Purple Hearts and 18,143 individual decorations, including 21 Medals of Honor.

The 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry is the only remaining infantry unit in the Army Reserve. The unit fought in Iraq in 2005.

The naming also is a tip of the hat to U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawai'i, who lost his right arm while serving with the 442nd, and who helped bring the C-17 squadron to Hawai'i.

An arrival ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m. Dozens of 100th, 442nd veterans are expected to attend.

No Air Force squadron has more than three aircraft with names, officials said. The C-17 squadron has "Spirit of Hawai'i-Ke Aloha," and a veterans group said the third and final name is expected to be "Spirit of Kamehameha."

HOSPITAL SHIP IN PHILIPPINES

The U.S. naval hospital ship Mercy arrived off the coast of the southern Philippines island of Jolo last week to provide humanitarian assistance.

Mercy's involvement is part of a five-month deployment to South and Southeast Asia. Doctors and other medical personnel from the Aloha Medical Mission in Hawai'i are part of the mission.

A Naval Mobile Construction Battalion renovated parts of Zamboanga Medical Center during the ship's weeklong visit to the city. A stop in Tawi Tawi will be the last in the Philippines.

3 WORLD WAR II MIAS IDENTIFIED

The Defense POW/Missing Personnel office announced that three servicemen missing in action from World War II have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial.

On Dec. 10, 1944, a C-47 took off from New Guinea on a cargo flight with three passengers. After a request was radioed for weather information, the plane disappeared.

In 1979 and 1980, search teams from the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawai'i, found the site, and in late 2004 a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command — the lab's successor — excavated the site in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

The three identified are: 2nd Lt. Robert H. Cameron of Elkhart, Ind.; Cpl. George E. Cunningham of Rich Hill, N.Y.; and Capt. Vladimir M. Sasko of Chicago.


Correction: The arrival date for the seventh C-17 cargo carrier at Hickam Air Force Base was incorrect in a previous version of this story.