The Honolulu Advertiser
Monday, February 10, 2003

Kane'ohe radio battalion latest from state to deploy

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

KANE'OHE — "Norris! Newman! Meadows! Philbrook!" the gunnery sergeant barked, sending Marine after Marine toward five U.S. Army buses parked on a dusty asphalt road in the middle of the base at Kane'ohe Bay.

"Go, Marine!" the gunny yelled out.

With spouses teary eyed and children calling out, "Bye, Daddy," about 220 members of the 1st Radio Battalion shouldered their M-16s and their laptop computers, flashed shaka and V-for-victory signs and headed out yesterday for a possible showdown in the sand with Saddam Hussein.

The communications and electronic warfare specialists were the latest of several small contingents from Hawai'i shipped out to the Middle East in preparation for war, following 30 of their own, more than 350 Pearl Harbor sailors on the destroyer O'Kane who left Jan. 17, and 200 Marines from Camp Smith who set up headquarters in Bahrain almost a year ago.

About 40 Marine reservists from Hawai'i also are about to be deployed in the 4th Force Reconnaissance Company activated Jan. 14 for amphibious and deep ground scouting and spying and raids.

One Marine getting on the buses yesterday was Sgt. Leah Philbrook, a clerk with the radio battalion, leaving home only three weeks after her husband, Sgt. Nicholas Philbrook of Marine Forces Pacific, returned to Hawai'i after his own deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Daughter Elya looked from Mom in her camouflage uniform to her civvies-clad Dad to try to figure out what was going on.

"Where's Mommy going? Nowhere," Elya said hopefully.

Leah Philbrook held Elya's little brother, Duncan, 18 months, in the distracted grasp of a mom helping her children down their cheeseburgers from McDonald's, but said she knew it was the last meal the family would have together for quite a while.