Seventeen Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets from Punahou School will carry dozens of patches and pins — representing thousands of military members from Hawai'i — when they march down Pennsylvania Avenue for President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural parade.

The gesture is so poignant and significant that a wounded soldier from the 25th Infantry Division's rear detachment command next week will present one of the Punahou cadets with three patches to carry in the parade: one to be returned to the wounded soldier, another to be presented to the unit's command and a third for the student to keep.

"The act is huge," said Loran Doane, media relations chief with the U.S. Army Garrison. "I'm very happy they had the forethought to do this."

At the Army's 8th Theater Sustainment Command at Fort Shafter, its dress uniform patches of a blue, eight-pointed star on a red and white background will be presented to a Punahou cadet by none other than the two-star major general who commands the unit.

"This is a hallmark national event and we're really proud to be a part of it, if even in a small fashion," said Lt. Col. Mike Donnelly, the command's spokesman. "I want the commanding general to be there because it's that important. He is the commander of that patch and he represents thousands of soldiers across a 9,000-mile span."

At the same time, the president of one of Hawai'i's largest public relations firms — David Wilson, of McNeil Wilson Communications Inc. — has produced 300 to 400 of his own pins to sell to benefit a Hawai'i charity to be named later, and about 100 more that he'll give away when he's in Washington for the inauguration.

The pins feature gold, braid trim encircling crossed American and Hawai'i flags and the words "Imua Obama."

The Hawaiian words "i mua" loosely mean to move forward or advance, and Wilson thought the expression was symbolic of the incoming Obama presidency and a message Wilson wants to share with everyone in Washington.

"Many people hope he's going to move this country forward," Wilson said. "I thought it would be nice for local people to pass them around, like omiyage."

Wilson came up with the idea in December and his staff quickly had the pins manufactured and up for sale this week for $10 on www.amazon.com and on eBay, listed under the keywords "Imua" and "Obama."

"Wilson just came into my office and said, 'Hey, let's do these pins,' " said Keith DeMello, who shepherded the project. "It's a way for anybody to express their pride in the first Hawai'i-born president of the United States. The symbolism of the pins is to encourage Hawai'i's son to move the country and the world toward a hopeful future."

Lt. Col. Bob Takao, Punahou's JROTC senior Army instructor, grew up watching the Army-Navy game where West Point cadets adorn their football uniforms with the patches of the units they plan to serve with.

So when his Punahou cadets were selected to march in the inaugural parade, Takao began soliciting unit patches and pins from active-duty units in the Islands.

"We want to carry them for their guys who couldn't march there," Takao said. "I want my cadets to know that they're not just representing Punahou. They're representing the whole state."

When the cadets return to Hawai'i, they plan to frame the patches and pins and include an inscription that they were carried during the inaugural parade.

Takao has received about 20 patches and pins so far. But next week, he expects to be flooded with even more from active-duty units, as well as other junior ROTC high school programs and university-level ROTC units.

He especially hopes to receive pins or patches from the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Honolulu police and fire departments.

"I want each of the students to understand that you're carrying a piece of a unit and you're really representing them in the parade," Takao said.

The Army's Donnelly knows the importance of carrying a unit's patch because it helped shape the direction of his life.

He was an ROTC cadet at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., from 1983 to 1987, when he carried the crest of the 75th Ranger Regiment in his wallet.

During his first week at Gonzaga as a freshman, Donnelly saw an Army Ranger commercial and decided "that is exactly what I want to do in life: Jump out of planes, rappel out of helicopters, fast-rope out of helicopters, walk through the swamps and mud at night and be a special operator. And I did it."

So he suspects that carrying the patch of a Hawai'i-based unit might have a similar impact on the Punahou cadets. "It will seat in their memory," he said.

But even if carrying a patch does not represent a life-changing event for the students, it will certainly create a bond, Donnelly believes.

"Years later, if they see it again, they'll recognize it," Donnelly said. "They'll say, 'Hey, I was carrying your unit patch when (Obama) was inaugurated.' That's a significant message alone and it's important for us to be part of that."