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Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hegseth tours Hawaii bases, makes appeal to Pacific allies
DOD PHOTO BY U.S. AIR FORCE SENIOR AIRMAN MADELYN KEECH Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visits the USS ARIZONA (BB-39 ) memorial at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, March 24, 2025. 1 /2 DOD PHOTO BY U.S. AIR FORCE SENIOR AIRMAN MADELYN KEECH Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visits the USS ARIZONA (BB-39 ) memorial at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, March 24, 2025. PETTY OFFICER 1ST CLASS JOSEPH ROLFE / U.S. NAVY Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addressed Navy SEALS after a morning workout with them Tuesday at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. 2 /2 PETTY OFFICER 1ST CLASS JOSEPH ROLFE / U.S. NAVY Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addressed Navy SEALS after a morning workout with them Tuesday at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. DOD PHOTO BY U.S. AIR FORCE SENIOR AIRMAN MADELYN KEECH Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visits the USS ARIZONA (BB-39 ) memorial at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, March 24, 2025. PETTY OFFICER 1ST CLASS JOSEPH ROLFE / U.S. NAVY Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addressed Navy SEALS after a morning workout with them Tuesday at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continued his tour of Hawaii on Tuesday, meeting with troops, touring bases and giving a speech in Waikiki in which he made overtures to American allies in the Pacific and called on them to help the U.S. confront China. 'Our relationships and our teamwork form the foundation of achieving peace through strength, ' Hegseth said. 'President Donald Trump has made it clear that we will achieve peace through strength through an 'America first' approach. But America first does not mean America only or America alone, ignoring allies and partners. It means that our military-to-military relationships must make sense for the United States and for our friends. Where there are imbalances, we will fix them.' He added that pursuing that vision 'will require even greater attention to the partnerships that matter the most. And our alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific matter a great deal to the United States. They matter because the Indo-Pacific is the region of consequence.' Hegseth, who arrived in Hawaii on Monday to meet with top U.S. commanders, delivered the remarks at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. His speech was broadcast to the center's alumni network, which includes senior military officers, diplomats and law enforcement professionals in countries around the Pacific and beyond. Hegseth told them, 'We will work with our allies and our partners to deter the Communist Chinese and their aggression in the Indo-Pacific, full stop, by standing shoulder to shoulder with you, our allies and partners. We will put our enemies, our adversaries, those who stand against us, on notice.' His stop in Hawaii is part of the first leg of a Pacific tour that also will take him to Guam, Japan and the Philippines. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA. The Pacific has long been considered the Pentagon's top-priority theater of operations amid tensions with China and concerns about North Korea's nuclear missile program. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it also has stepped up joint operations with the Chinese military and solidified ties with Pyongyang, forming what Adm. Samuel Pa paro—the top American commander in the Pacific—in February called a 'triangle of troublemakers.' Paparo introduced Hegseth before he made the remarks at APCSS, describing him as 'handpicked by the president of the United States and ruthlessly focused on warrior ethos, on lethality, on defending the homeland.' Hegseth praised Paparo as a 'fighting admiral.' Hegseth has pledged to 'rebuild ' the U.S. military while simultaneously cutting costs. He has said he intends to cut down on bureaucracy to allow the military to more quickly acquire weapons and equipment. He also has pledged to eliminate most cultural and environmental programs, which he has derided as 'woke.' 'I'm here today because the president has given me—and the American people gave him—the mandate to achieve peace through strength, ' Hegseth said. 'By restoring the warrior ethos, U.S. forces assigned to the Indo-Pacific will be the best trained and best equipped in the world.' The Trump administration has said it intends to cut the military's massive budget by 8 % each year, but Hegseth asked that U.S. Indo-Pacific Command—which is headquartered at Camp Smith—be exempt from the cuts. 'We're going to rebuild our military by optimizing the Department of Defense and the U.S. defense industrial base, to rapidly and responsibly deliver the right tools to our war fighters in real time, ' he said. 'And we will also deliver those tools rapidly and responsibly to our allies and to our partners. There are many opportunities for our defense industries to collaborate, and I'm going to press hard to expand capacity and accelerate deliveries.' Countries around Asia have sought to arm their forces amid tensions with China—including those on Hegseth's itinerary. The Chinese military has stepped up operations in the South China Sea, a critical waterway that more than a third of international trade moves through and that Beijing claims as its exclusive sovereign territory against the objections of its neighbors. In particular, Chinese forces have clashed with the Philippines, harassing fishermen and building bases on disputed reefs and islands. Japan has reported an increase in Chinese activity near a disputed island chain that Japan calls the Senkaku Islands and China calls the Diaoyu Islands, and the Chinese and Russian militaries have begun regular joint maneuvers around Japan. Chinese forces also have stepped up operations around Taiwan, a self-ruled island democracy that Beijing regards as a rouge province. Paparo has said these maneuvers aren't exercises, but 'rehearsals ' of a blockade or all-out invasion of Taiwan. At a news conference Tuesday evening at Marine Corps Base Hawaii—which was restricted to media traveling with Hegseth and not made available to local media—Hegseth said, 'The campaigns we're doing in and around the first island chain are not meant to be the precursor to an attack. We're here to deter. We're here to show strength with our allies, and that includes ensuring that in every possible way, American force is projected forward.' As Hegseth addressed members of the national media in Kaneohe, several different groups of picketers gathered outside the Pacific Fleet headquarters. One was a groups of veterans calling for him to resign in the wake of controversy after Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffry Goldberg was apparently accidentally added to a group chat on the app Signal in which Hegseth allegedly discussed sensitive operations against Houthi militants in Yemen. Others were anti-military activists calling for the U.S. military to leave Hawaii. Another group was made up of members of the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative, an elected community board formed as part of a federal consent decree regarding the closure of the Navy's Red Hill fuel facility. In 2021, fuel from the facility tainted the Navy's Oahu water system, which serves 93, 000 people. The facility sits just 100 feet over the aquifer most of Oahu relies on for clean water. Members of the CRI said they were calling on Hegseth to ensure that the Navy keeps its promise to close Red Hill and clean up the area of pollution. Mai Hall, a military spouse and local woman born in Kalihi who was among the affected residents, said she hopes Hegseth's plans to cut environmental and cultural programs don't extend to promised efforts to clean up Red Hill. Hall said that 'environment and health does play absolutely a huge role in the readiness of the service members. You can't send people off to war if they're sick.' Tara Sutton, another affected resident who serves on the CRI, said that 'clean water makes strong soldiers.'
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's Pentagon seeks spending on Pacific forces, cuts to environmental and cultural programs
KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ A crew member aboard an American V-22 Osprey transporting a group of international military personnel to the USS Carl Vinson during RIMPAC 2024. 1 /8 KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ A crew member aboard an American V-22 Osprey transporting a group of international military personnel to the USS Carl Vinson during RIMPAC 2024. U.S. AIR FORCE SENIOR AIRMAN MADELYN KEECH / U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, right, has pledged to 'rebuild ' the military but has requested that the Hawaii-based U.S. Indo-Pacific Command be exempt from budget cuts. The INDOPACOM plays a significant role in RIMPAC and training exercises at Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island. Hegseth welcomed Elon Musk on Friday at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. 2 /8 U.S. AIR FORCE SENIOR AIRMAN MADELYN KEECH / U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, right, has pledged to 'rebuild ' the military but has requested that the Hawaii-based U.S. Indo-Pacific Command be exempt from budget cuts. The INDOPACOM plays a significant role in RIMPAC and training exercises at Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island. Hegseth welcomed Elon Musk on Friday at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ A U.S. Army soldier prepares for battle in an exercise at Pohakuloa Training Area. 3 /8 KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ A U.S. Army soldier prepares for battle in an exercise at Pohakuloa Training Area. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ Members of the Oahu-based 25th Infantry Division use a lava rock formation as a fighting position as they fire from enemy forces during a simulated battle on Nov. 2, 2022, at the Pohakuloa Training Area. 4 /8 KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ Members of the Oahu-based 25th Infantry Division use a lava rock formation as a fighting position as they fire from enemy forces during a simulated battle on Nov. 2, 2022, at the Pohakuloa Training Area. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ / 2022 Environmental issues and the future of ancient Hawaiian cultural sites are among the discussions going forward as the Army negotiates lease renewals with the state Board of Land and Natural Resources. Lena Schnell, senior program manager with Colorado State University's Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands shows off several native plants at Pohakuloa Training Area's greenhouse. 5 /8 KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ / 2022 Environmental issues and the future of ancient Hawaiian cultural sites are among the discussions going forward as the Army negotiates lease renewals with the state Board of Land and Natural Resources. Lena Schnell, senior program manager with Colorado State University's Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands shows off several native plants at Pohakuloa Training Area's greenhouse. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ The Pohakuloa Training area is classified as a sub-alpine tropical dry land forest, one of the rarest kinds of ecosystem in the world. 6 /8 KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ The Pohakuloa Training area is classified as a sub-alpine tropical dry land forest, one of the rarest kinds of ecosystem in the world. STAR-ADVERTISER Army Col. Steven McGunegle with offering of ho 'okupu during a visit to the military's Makua Valley training ground on April 25. 7 /8 STAR-ADVERTISER Army Col. Steven McGunegle with offering of ho 'okupu during a visit to the military's Makua Valley training ground on April 25. STAR-ADVERTISER / 2019 The Marines have a rifle range next to Puuloa Beach Park. Signs warn people not to enter the area. 8 /8 STAR-ADVERTISER / 2019 The Marines have a rifle range next to Puuloa Beach Park. Signs warn people not to enter the area. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ A crew member aboard an American V-22 Osprey transporting a group of international military personnel to the USS Carl Vinson during RIMPAC 2024. U.S. AIR FORCE SENIOR AIRMAN MADELYN KEECH / U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, right, has pledged to 'rebuild ' the military but has requested that the Hawaii-based U.S. Indo-Pacific Command be exempt from budget cuts. The INDOPACOM plays a significant role in RIMPAC and training exercises at Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island. Hegseth welcomed Elon Musk on Friday at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ A U.S. Army soldier prepares for battle in an exercise at Pohakuloa Training Area. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ Members of the Oahu-based 25th Infantry Division use a lava rock formation as a fighting position as they fire from enemy forces during a simulated battle on Nov. 2, 2022, at the Pohakuloa Training Area. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ / 2022 Environmental issues and the future of ancient Hawaiian cultural sites are among the discussions going forward as the Army negotiates lease renewals with the state Board of Land and Natural Resources. Lena Schnell, senior program manager with Colorado State University's Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands shows off several native plants at Pohakuloa Training Area's greenhouse. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ The Pohakuloa Training area is classified as a sub-alpine tropical dry land forest, one of the rarest kinds of ecosystem in the world. STAR-ADVERTISER Army Col. Steven McGunegle with offering of ho 'okupu during a visit to the military's Makua Valley training ground on April 25. STAR-ADVERTISER / 2019 The Marines have a rifle range next to Puuloa Beach Park. Signs warn people not to enter the area. President Donald Trump and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, have promised sweeping changes to the U.S. military. Hegseth has pledged to 'rebuild ' the military by investing in high-tech weapon and industrial programs while simultaneously cutting costs. The administration has promised to reduce the Department of Defense's massive spending budget by 8 % each year as part of sweeping cuts being undertaken across the federal government. Those cuts are being overseen by billionaire Elon Musk and the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, made up mostly of junior programmers and engineers from Musk's various companies. On Friday, Musk met with Hegseth and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. While Hegseth supports budget cuts, he specifically requested that the Hawaii-based U.S. Indo-Pacific Command—which oversees all operations across the Pacific—be exempt from any reductions, a strong sign that Hawaii is being put squarely at the center of the new administration's military strategy. 'His request that INDO PACOM be exempted from budget cuts indicates a priority shift from Europe to the Indo Pacific, ' said Elizabeth Freund Larus, adjunct senior fellow at the Honolulu-based Pacific Forum. 'It recognizes that China poses the biggest threat to the post-World War II global order. Hegseth's list of 17 offsets includes funding for military construction funding in the Indo-Pacific to support the military's Pacific Deterrence Initiative strategic plan.' Hawaii currently has the highest share of the military's construction budget of any state, accounting for roughly 8 % of the total. The biggest share of those funds—$1.2 billion—is meant for the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard's Dry Dock 5, which is the single most expensive construction project in Navy history. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA. The shipyard is the state's largest industrial employer with a workforce of more than 6, 000 employees. That spending is expected to stay stable amid DOGE's aggressive federal cuts. But while military spending has helped prop up Hawaii's economy, countless dollars also have been spent over the decades on cleaning up pollution associated with the military presence in the islands. In particular, the Red Hill water crisis, which began in 2021 when jet fuel from the Navy's underground Red Hill storage facility tainted the area's water system serving 93, 000 people, and efforts to shut down the facility has put military operations in Hawaii under the microscope. Though the Trump administration wants to keep spending to build the nation's Pacific forces, the future of the military's environmental cleanup and cultural programs in Hawaii is less clear. 'A give-and-take thing' The military has several interests it hopes to maintain in Hawaii. Notably, the Army has several land leases on state lands it uses for training that will expire in 2029. The training areas, acquired for a mere $1 in 1964, have been increasingly used for international exercises, bringing foreign troops from across the globe. Environmental issues and the future of ancient Hawaiian cultural sites are among the discussions going forward as the Army negotiates lease renewals with the state Board of Land and Natural Resources. 'While we've been making gains in building up relationships and trust, trying to have conversations about what this balance looks like between military presence and the community, we are nowhere near even close to getting down to the brass tacks of it all, ' said U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee. 'You've got a definite change in leadership that's coming in. It's really hard to say what they will decide to do, what their posture in Hawaii will be in regards to the lease renegotiations.' Hegseth has pledged to slash many environmental programs and prohibit military officials from discussing climate change. Even under Trump's previous administration, the Pentagon studied climate change, including a 2018 study that concluded the majority of U.S. bases faced threats from intensifying weather patterns. 'Some segments of our society can consider climate change to be either nonexistent or just a matter to be kind of thrown away from a political perspective, ' said U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii. 'But the military has studied the consequences of changes in our weather, on their preparation, on their installations, on their ability to fight wars, on their basic ability to function, and they've reached a very definite, objective conclusion—absent of politics—that the kind of climate changes we're seeing in the world are detrimental, if left unaddressed, to their mission.' Larus said Hegseth has been critical 'of ideological training in the U.S. military, including workshops and education modules outside the war-fighting domain, such as on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and those on climate change.' Last month he fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. CQ Brown Jr., who was formerly the top Air Force commander in the Pacific, and several other top officers the administration deemed as 'woke.' The military has spent millions on environmental remediation and on preserving ancient Hawaiian cultural sites on lands it controls and uses for its operations in Hawaii. When asked if the Pentagon under Hegseth would actively pursue promised environmental cleanup and cultural preservation programs specific to Hawaii under the new administration, Larus said Hegseth 'is single-minded when it comes to the U.S. military. He has said over and over that the mission of the U.S. military is warfighting.' Larus said Hawaii residents should expect to see environmental and cultural programs drastically scaled back and argued most were the result of congressional mandates that 'warped military priorities and distracted the military from warfighting with an emphasis on lethality. Recognizing that U.S. adversaries, such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, have no such desire to make the military a kinder and gentler organization, Hegseth and President Trump want to return the U.S. military to a fighting force that is more lethal than that of its adversaries.' But state Sen. Kurt Fevella, who has represented portions of the Ewa area since 2018 as one of Hawaii's few Republican lawmakers, said that talk of cutting back on environmental efforts troubles him. 'I know they got to be ready, not taking away anything from there, but there's parameters … , ' he said. 'The disrespect for the host people is something that is troubling for me.' Fevella has already tangled with military officials under both the Trump and Biden administrations when it comes to environmental and community concerns around the Marine Corps' Puuloa Range Training Facility in his district, pollution coming out of Pearl Harbor and Army land leases, including the large Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island. He said he remains committed to those fights in the long term. 'We want to be able to protect our environment when it comes to any kind of military presence. To be a good partner is a give-and-take thing, ' Fevella said. 'Do they have a cleaning plan for Pearl Harbor ? Do they have any plan to clean up all the oil that is leaking into the ocean that's coming to my community at Puuloa Beach Park ? No, they don't address these things. So to be a good neighbor to the host community—or host people—just do your job. They have the the best engineers … (so ) why you cannot just be pono to the land ?' Warfighters China has been proactively building up its military capabilities and clashing with neighboring countries. In particular, the Chinese military has sought to impose control over the South China Sea—a critical waterway that more than a third of all international trade travels through—over the objections of its neighbors, often clashing with vessels from those countries. It has also stepped up military maneuvers around Taiwan, a self-ruled island democracy with close U.S. trade ties that Beijing regards as a rogue province. 'Threats across the region from North Korea, China and Russia are real and stretch from illicit to strategic dangers, ' according to Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. 'The Chinese in particular have engaged in nefarious influence campaigns from pressuring local island governments to enabling criminal organizations to operate in the region, weakening local governance.' The U.S. military has conducted constant patrols and training exercises throughout the region. Larus argued 'the Biden administration was strong on diplomacy with Pacific allies as well as with projection of soft power but was weak on military power and military power projection ; (it ) was weak on backing up diplomacy with military strength.' China now has the world's largest navy in terms of number of ships and is growing its capacity, while the U.S. is struggling to maintain ships at its aging shipyards. 'The biggest mistake that previous administrations made in the Pacific is failing to maintain a navy adequate to sustain U.S. maritime power in the region and to uphold the peace and security of the Indo-Pacific, ' Larus said. 'U.S. Navy assets are inadequate to deter China's muscular and growing navy. In particular, the U.S. has lost its ability to keep up with China's shipbuilding capacity.' Military leaders have expressed optimism about Hegseth's pledge to streamline the acquisition of new military hardware and trim the bureaucracy. On Feb. 13 at the Honolulu Defense Forum, INDOPACOM chief Adm. Samuel Paparo said the U.S. military needs 'procurement at the speed of combat, not at the speed of committees … Technology alone is not going to win this fight. We've also got to reform defense bureaucracy with unprecedented urgency.' But several military officials who spoke to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser also expressed unease about the administration's apparent dismissal of climate change, which many Pacific countries see as their No. 1 threat, its contentious dealings with traditional allies and an aggressive push to gut any programs deemed to promote DEI. When it comes to diversity, some military officials said they are concerned about an over-correction of the Biden administration's embrace of identity politics toward outright rejection of efforts to capitalize on America's cultural diversity. An Army official noted that Hawaii serves as both a key military and diplomatic meeting site for the U.S. government in part because its diverse Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora populations vividly demonstrate America's deep Pacific ties—something U.S. officials have proudly highlighted to their Pacific allies in the past. Under Trump's first presidency and the Biden years, there was a push to recruit young Hawaii residents to serve as military officers and diplomats and in intelligence roles to support America's 'pivot to the Pacific.' 'Anything that says the word 'cultural'—even 'historical'—is looking to be removed from the Department of Defense, ' Tokuda said. She noted that she and other lawmakers have fought for cultural training for military personnel coming to Hawaii and the Pacific, arguing 'it's so critically important they understand the history of where we have been as a people, as a community, in regards to our relationship with the military, so they better understand how we must do better going forward.' Recently, the Pentagon drew immense backlash in Hawaii when it removed digital content about Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the service. Among the culled content was an Army webpage dedicated to the legendary 442nd Regimental Combat team, which was drawn largely from Hawaii-born Nisei and became one of the most decorated combat units in American history. Fierce public response led to the swift republishing of the Army's 442nd history as a news item on its website, but much of the rest of the content remains unavailable. Pentagon officials have insisted they intend to honor veterans but say they now want to remove race and culture from the discussion as much as possible. 'Anybody that claims to know exactly how this is all going to unfold is on a fool's errand, ' Case said. 'I'm eyes wide open that, if nothing else, we're dealing with a very fluid and uncertain situation where a new administration could make changes with dramatic ripple effects around our region and, in fact, the world. 'And so I don't think any of us can predict with any degree of certainty what President Trump will do, either generally or specific to the DOD, or what the consequences of what he does will be either.' 5 Comments By participating in online discussions you acknowledge that you have agreed to the. An insightful discussion of ideas and viewpoints is encouraged, but comments must be civil and in good taste, with no personal attacks. If your comments are inappropriate, you may be banned from posting. 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Yahoo
02-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Mission returns remains from ‘Secret War' in Laos to Hawaii
KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ Staff Sgt. Steven Saunders carries the possible remains of American Vietnam War dead recovered from Laos at Hickam Airfield on Friday. 1 /3 KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ Staff Sgt. Steven Saunders carries the possible remains of American Vietnam War dead recovered from Laos at Hickam Airfield on Friday. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ Staff Sgt. Ross Neely carries recently recovered remains from Laos that arrived Friday at Hickam Airfield. 2 /3 KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ Staff Sgt. Ross Neely carries recently recovered remains from Laos that arrived Friday at Hickam Airfield. SENIOR AIRMAN KATHY DURAN / U.S. AIR FORCE / 2024 U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Mitchell Hartman, an explosive ordnance disposal technician for the Defense POW /MIA Accounting Agency, surveys an area during a recovery mission in Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic. 3 /3 SENIOR AIRMAN KATHY DURAN / U.S. AIR FORCE / 2024 U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Mitchell Hartman, an explosive ordnance disposal technician for the Defense POW /MIA Accounting Agency, surveys an area during a recovery mission in Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ Staff Sgt. Steven Saunders carries the possible remains of American Vietnam War dead recovered from Laos at Hickam Airfield on Friday. KEVIN KNODELL / KKNODELL @ Staff Sgt. Ross Neely carries recently recovered remains from Laos that arrived Friday at Hickam Airfield. SENIOR AIRMAN KATHY DURAN / U.S. AIR FORCE / 2024 U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Mitchell Hartman, an explosive ordnance disposal technician for the Defense POW /MIA Accounting Agency, surveys an area during a recovery mission in Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Service members and military officials gathered Friday morning at Hickam Airfield to welcome a Hawaii National Guard C-17 airplane arriving with precious cargo. The plane was flying in from Laos with what the military believes could be the remains of Americans killed in a secret battle during the Vietnam War. Service members wearing white gloves carefully carried small boxes from the plane that were topped with folded American flags. The boxes containing bones retrieved from the area where the battle took place were then transported to the Defense POW /MIA Accounting Agency's forensic lab at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, where researchers will try to identify them. 'This is the largest forensic skeleton lab in the world, and I don't think a lot of people in Hawaii know that, ' said John M. Figuerres, the agency's acting deputy director for operations. To retrieve the remains, a team from the DPAA searched the highlands of Laos, working in difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. 'This was an extremely difficult site because the battle took place on top of a mountain in Laos, ' Figuerres said. 'After the battle, the remains were scattered. The Vietnamese forces actually threw the American bodies off the side of the cliff.' Members of the recovery team trained at the U.S Marine Mountain Warfare Training Center to prepare for the mission. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA. 'The conditions (in Laos ) were extremely difficult, ' Figuerres said. 'In January, the route that they were taking, even though we had previously cleared it, we discovered had mines on it from the war … . I am so proud of these youngsters and these individuals who actually execute the mission to bring back these fallen warriors.' Currently, 1, 573 personnel remain missing from the Vietnam War, and some 280 are believed to be in Laos. During the war Laos was, at least on paper, a neutral country, according to the International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos signed July 23, 1962. That meant both U.S. and North Vietnamese forces were prohibited from openly conducting military operations in the kingdom. But in practice, the North Vietnamese Army and South Vietnamese Viet Cong guerillas supported by the North used areas of Laos as part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail to move fighters and equipment in and out of South Vietnam. They also provided weapons and other assistance to the communist Pathet Lao insurgency that was fighting to overthrow the Laotian government. Likewise, the U.S. military conducted bombing operations and occasional raids against communist Vietnamese forces, and the CIA fought both them and the Pathet Lao using an army of Indigenous Hmong tribal fighters. Since neither the U.S. military nor the North Vietnamese forces were supposed to be in Laos, neither side publicly discussed the fighting, which came to be known as the 'Secret War.' The DPAA is hoping the remains recovered in Laos belong to Americans killed during the fierce Battle of Lima Site 85, until relatively recently a forgotten battle. Lima Site 85 was a clandestine base used by the U.S. military and the CIA to covertly support air operations against communist forces in Laos. A small team of American airmen and civilian technicians worked there operating radar and weather equipment. In 1968, North Vietnamese troops backed by Pathet Lao fighters launched several attacks against the base, which was defended by CIA-backed Hmong tribal fighters, and Thai troops and border police. In March of that year they encircled the small base and pounded it with artillery before eventually overrunning the facility with their combined forces. Of the 19 Americans there, 13 were killed along with 42 Thai and Hmong fighters. Among those killed were Air Force Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger, who aided the wounded survivors and was fatally wounded himself when an enemy soldier on the ground fired a bullet into the underside of an evacuation helicopter as it was leaving. The operation remained classified and Etchberger's actions were not publicly acknowledged until 1998. After the declassification of the base and the operations around them, the military reevaluated Etchberger's actions and posthumously awarded him the Medal of Honor in 2010. The DPAA has spent more than two decades searching for the men who died in the battle for Lima Site 85, so far successfully recovering and identifying the remains of three. Senior Airman Layne Fitzpatrick of Kapolei, who was a member of the flight crew that brought the most recent remains to Hawaii, said, 'It's really cool to see how many people are involved … with operations around Asia, just to all the hard work they're doing, just to recover all the human remains for dignified transfer.' Over the past 17 years, Hawaii Air National Guard Senior Master Sgt. Joleen Morse has flown several repatriation missions of American war dead. She's flown remains from the Philippines, the South Pacific and now Laos. 'Every mission is special, ' Morse said, but the most emotional experience for her was bringing back 22 fallen Marines from the island of Tarawa in the South Pacific nation of Kiribati. 'That was the first time we had to see the pictures of everyone that we moved, and they'd been there for 75 years, so they had no family when we came back, ' Morse said. 'Everybody we moved was 21 and under.' 'We're bringing them home. It may take a while for us to ID them, but if you really think about it, the Vietnam War ended over 50 years ago, ' Figuerres said. 'Our warriors need to know that if something happens to them, there is an organization that will look out for them and bring them home.'
