CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — Al Faw, one of eight presidential palaces used by Saddam Hussein for hunting and recreation, is a 450,000-square-foot extravagance of marble, chandeliers and former Baathist glory on an artificial lake.
|
| Spc. Neil Shiroma, 34, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2-299th Infantry, stands guard at Al Faw Palace, headquarters for multinational military operations in Iraq. Shiroma, who calls Hilo home, is a Big Island police officer in civilian life.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
|
These days, you can pick up a little Hawaiian and aloha spirit there.
Hawai'i National Guard soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 299th Infantry who guard an access bridge and the palace perimeter practice both on all who enter, posting a Hawaiian word or phrase of the day.
And there are many who use the palace, now the headquarters for the four-star U.S. commander of Multi-National Force Iraq, and the three-star general in charge of Multi-National Corps Iraq.
Recently posted at the entry was " 'a'ole wala'au" — no talking. Pau hana and holoholo have been there.
"We get a lot of people coming in saying aloha, mahalo, all that kind of stuff now," said Staff Sgt. Matthew Malinowski, 25, who's from Hilo and has been in the Guard for seven years.
On base, other soldiers notice the aloha spirit. Iraqis receive greater respect from 2-299, and Hawai'i soldiers speculate it's partly because of their own daily interaction with diverse cultures back home.
|
| A huge and sumptuously decorated door greets people entering Al Faw Palace, headquarters for multinational military operations in Iraq.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
|
"That's what a lot of the people that come to work here say — they like the attitude that we have," said Sgt. 1st Class Aaron J. Okinaga, 48, who's originally from Kona but now lives on O'ahu.
"They wonder where it comes from. 'Why are you guys always smiling?' " said Okinaga, smiling.
A few minutes earlier, an Army major walked through the turnstyle and said, smiling, "It's Aloha Friday. I didn't want to get up today."
Spc. Koa Marzo, 24, a part Hawaiian, Filipino, Portuguese, French, Chinese ironworker from Hilo, said, "Our outlook on things is different compared to Mainland guys. Everyone says we have a different spirit."
Part of it, he says, is that the Guard soldiers from Hawai'i are a little more laid back.
|
| This signboard at the entrance to Al Faw Palace, headquarters for multinational military operations in Iraq, features a "Hawaiian word of the day" during the afternoon.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
|
Maj. Hugh Shoults of Fort Bragg, N.C., the operations officer for Task Force Dragon, which the 2nd Battalion, 299th works for, said the friendliness and good-natured attitude of the Hawai'i soldiers have set them apart.
"They've really developed kind of a reputation, I guess, amongst everybody," Shoults said. "Everybody knows the Hawai'i battalion. To say that on an installation (as big as this) says something."
There are about 15,000 coalition troops in the greater Camp Victory complex.
Okinaga said a lot of regular Army soldiers have been stationed in Hawai'i, and "when they listen to how we talk, they get flashbacks."
"They gotta come around. 'Who's that talking?' " Okinaga said. "And they say, 'Oh, we used to live in Mililani or Waipio Gentry.' "
The Headquarters and Headquarters Company soldiers wear arm insignias that say "Al Faw Palace Security."
|
| Marble spiral staircases are a feature of Al Faw Palace, formerly a pleasure dome for Saddam Hussein and his pals.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
|
Past the entry and a two-lane bridge over an unnaturally-green lake with carp and "Saddam bass," the soldiers also have perimeter and check-in duties at the palace itself.A 30-foot green and gilded arched doorway gives way to an even more impressive soaring rotunda flanked by marble columns and a two-tiered chandelier. Some Hawai'i soldiers have heard talk of torture chambers below.
Northeast of Baghdad International Airport, the palace was completed just before Operation Desert Storm, and is one of dozens in the area.
Another grand palace, which was to be dedicated to the Defeat of America, remains unfinished, two towering cranes still standing next to it.
At the start of the war in March 2003, a satellite-guided bomb destroyed a utility bridge and another targeted what was believed to have been Saddam's bedroom in Al Faw. The latter damage has since been repaired.
Standing on a colonnaded balcony overlooking the lake in the 115-plus-degree heat, Okinaga, a tile layer who's been in the Guard for 31 years and is on his first combat deployment, said of working at the palace, "I think about when Saddam was here, how this actually functioned."
Marzo said because he's part of a mortar platoon, doing the job he's doing now is not what he expected.
"As far as the mission is concerned, whatever we're assigned to do, we'll do," added Okinaga.
It's that willingness that's earned the Koa battalion soldiers respect.
In the five months of the year-long deployment the battalion has seen in Iraq, Marzo hasn't been off base, or "outside the wire."
"If I gotta go, I'll go," he said. "It would be good to see what's going on out there."
But he added that there is danger on base, as well.
Although mortar and rocket strikes against Camp Victory have been relatively rare of late, a U.S. service member was killed recently when there was a strike just outside nearby Camp Liberty's post exchange.
Separately, a rocket recently detonated a few hundred feet from a sprawling three-story concrete housing facility where many Hawai'i soldiers live.
"Why would you want to look for action when it comes to you?" Marzo said.
Malinowski, a security guard at the Fairmont Orchid hotel on the Big Island, said, "I can't wait to go home. This is a different experience, but it's worth doing."
