Tonight we honor three of our fallen. The two men were from the same unit and died in separate incidents in Afghanistan. The third was a young woman who was killed in Kuwait. All three were based in our lovely 50th state. We mourn with our fellow Hawaiians for these painful losses and say, "A hui hou kakou," (until we meet again) to those lost to our nation.
Lance Corporal Joshua R. Whittle from Downey, California, who was with the 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii
Major Rocco M. Barnes from Los Angeles, California, who was with the 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii
Specialist Cwislyn K. Walter from Honolulu, Hawaii, who was with the HHC 29th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
Lance Corporal Joshua R. Whittle
Joshua Whittle graduated from Warren High School in Downey, California in 2007. His MySpace page says:
Hi, im Joshua Whittle but call me MD ! My family and friends mean the world to me and i would give anything for them. I love going to shows and having fun. I love my job ! I am a UNITED STATES MARINE.
The Honolulu Advertiser states:
Whittle, nicknamed "MD" because of his likeness to actor Matt Damon, arrived at Kane'ohe in 2008 and was deployed to Afghanistan last month.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday issued a statement on Whittle, which read in part: "Joshua went above and beyond the call of duty, and his selfless dedication and sacrifice will not be forgotten. Maria and I send our thoughts and prayers to Joshua's family, friends and fellow Marines as they mourn this devastating loss."
Whittle arrived in Hawaii and reported to Kaneohe last August. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
He deployed to Afghanistan for the first time in May, to serve as a rifleman. The 20-year-old Marine had been in southern Afghanistan for less than a month on June 6th, the day he was killed. The Pentagon reported that Lance Corporal Whittle died while supporting combat operations in Helmand province.
Helmand borders Pakistan and is a Taliban stronghold as well as the home to the world's largest opium poppy-growing region. According to the Star Bulletin site:
Whittle's 2nd Battalion, with nearly 1,000 Kaneohe Marines, became part earlier this month of the 10,000-member Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, which the Obama administration deployed to Afghanistan to beef up counterinsurgency operations with Afghan forces in the southwestern part of the country. The 2nd Battalion is commanded by Lt. Col. Patrick Cashman.
The Kaneohe rifle battalion is one of three under the command of Col. Duffy White, who leads the 5,500-member ground force in the expeditionary brigade. White's command includes three Marine Corps rifle battalions from Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and Kaneohe. White is normally based at Kaneohe as head of the 3rd Marine Regiment.
The Marines are part of the additional 21,000 U.S. troops President Barack Obama is sending to the country this summer to bolster the roughly 40,000 already there as part of the strategy to combat insurgents, train Afghan forces and provide security for the Afghan national elections, scheduled for Aug. 20.
Lance Corporal Whittle received several awards including the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and National Defense Service Medal.
He will be buried in Riverside National Cemetery Riverside California with the Patriot Guard Riders scheduled to meet him when he comes home to California and ready to attend his funeral services.
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Major Rocco M. Barnes
Rocco Barnes was a 50 year-old resident of Los Angeles. He was a member of the Tactical Command Post, 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guard, assigned as an individual augmentee to the 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force.
The Pentagon said Army Major Rocco M. Barnes died June 4th of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over. According to this blog site, Barnes was helping with a humanitarian aid mission when the accident took his life:
MAJ Barnes was part of the shura mission I wrote about on 5 June 09. My team leader spoke with him before the shura and then we convoyed to the village meeting. After the humanitarian assistance was off-loaded for the villages, our convoy was the first to leave the shura site and traveled down the mountainous winding curves. MAJ Barnes’ vehicle departed down the mountain sometime after our convoy reached the hardball and was involved in a tragic roll-over. Unfortunately he did not survive his injuries.
Subsequently after the memorial service, my team was tasked to provide armed escort and transport the vehicle to another camp for repairs. I can’t recall how many years MAJ Barnes gave to the service and to his country, but he was regarded as a "father" to his troops and had a wealth of knowledge and expertise. He will be sorely missed. May God rest his soul and comfort his unit and his family members.
More details about the humanitarian mission are provided in the blog, including some great pictures of life in Afghanistan.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued the following statement about the death of Major Rocco M. Barnes:
"California has lost another brave solider in the fight to protect our country, and Major Rocco Barnes’ service will forever be remembered. California’s National Guardsman are a vital part of the effort to safeguard the freedoms we hold dear from threats here and around the world. Maria and I were saddened to learn of this tragedy and send our deepest condolences to Rocco’s family and friends."
The Governor also ordered flags throughout California to be lowered to half-staff to honor the passing of Major Barnes. While no funeral arrangements have been announced, the Patriot Guard Riders are prepared to attend.
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Specialist Cwislyn K. Walter
Cwislyn Walter was born October 8, 1989, in Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia and grew up in Guam. On her MySpace page, Walter said she has two sisters, three brothers and "two very luvin’ parents."
Crislyn graduated from Farrington High School in 2007. She joined the Hawaii National Guard in April 2007 and completed her basic training at Fort Gordon. She was also trained at Fort Jackson as a human resources specialist.
Walter was assigned to the HHC 29th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and was deployed to Kuwait in October of 2008. Her unit is expected to return home in July.
According to an article in theStars and Stripes :
"In my 26 years of service, SPC Walter ranks among the best that I have had the honor to have known and worked with," Lt. Col. Moses Kaoiwi, commander of the 29th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, was quoted as saying in an Army news release.
"She was young and motivated. She had initiative and produced quality work. She really had a positive impact on everyone in the battalion and brought the best out of everyone."
Walter was a passenger in a SUV which crashed on a trip from Camp Virginia to Camp Arifjan on February 19th, 2009. Three other Hawaii guardsmen were seriously injured in the single-vehicle accident on Seventh Ring Road outside Kuwait City. Specialist Cwislyn K. Walter died as a result of injuries sustained from the single-vehicle accident. The other guardsmen suffered from multiple injuries in the accident, but have recovered.
A memorial service was held at Camp Virginia, Kuwait, to remember the 19-year-old National Guard soldier. According to The Honolulu Advertiser site:
Nearly 600 U.S. service members from all over Kuwait filled the small Camp Virginia chapel today to pay their last respects to Spc. Cwislyn K. Walter, 19, a Hawaii National Guard soldier who was killed on Thursday in a vehicle accident in Kuwait.
An upturned rifle topped by a helmet with Walter's combat boots and a photo were arrayed in the chapel for the traditional combat memorial for the 2007 Farrington graduate.
According to the Star Bulletin site:
According to an Army release, the soldiers emphasized how significant it was that Walter became a U.S. citizen after being called to active duty in August along with 1,200 soldiers from the Hawaii Army National Guard and another 500 from the Army Reserve's 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry.
They specifically noted how she spent countless hours studying for the citizenship test while the unit was completing mobilization training at Fort Hood in Texas.
As they all expected, she passed with flying colors before her unit left for Kuwait.
Governor of Hawaii ordered the lowering of both the United States Flag, and the Hawai‘i State Flag to half-staff on all federal, state and county buildings in Hawaii from sunrise to sunset on March 3, 2009 to honor the passing of Specialist Walter.
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Helping our troops:
If you wish to assist our military and their families, consider Operation Helmet, or Fisher House. If you have frequent flyer miles, they can be donated to hospitalized veterans or their families. See Fisher House’s Hero Miles program for details. Consider sponsoring a deployed service member at TroopCarePackage.com. Letters or care packages can make a real difference in a military person's life. To assist the animal companions of our deployed military, information is available here. Also, you could visit:
When our veterans come back home, they need jobs. Look at the programs of Hire Heroes USA and Welcome Back Veterans to see if you can help out.
About the IGTNT series:
"I Got the News Today" is a diary series intended to honor, respect, and remind us of the sacrifice of our troops. Click here to see the series, which was begun by i dunno, and which is maintained by Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, noweasels, greenies, blue jersey mom, Chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, roses, SisTwo, SpamNunn, a girl in MI, JeNoCo and Mediaprof. These diaries are heartbreaking to write, but an important service to those Americans who have died and to our community’s respect for and remembrance of them. If you would like to volunteer, even once a month, please contact me, Sis.
Fallen service members whose names have been released by the Department of Defense will usually be diaried two days after the official announcement on the DoD website. This allows the IGTNT team to cover each person more fully, but still in a timely manner
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Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members mentioned here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.