Hawaii National Guard unit deploys to Afghanistan

For the third time since 2010, a Hawaii Army National Guard Chinook helicopter unit is deploying to Afghanistan.

About 80 citizen soldiers Friday afternoon stood in formation in a hangar at Kalaeloa before getting a chance to say goodbye to loved ones. More than 450 family members and friends came out for the ceremony. A dozen of the B Company, 1st Battalion, 171st Aviation Regiment’s CH-47Fs are in Texas.

The deployment is the first expected over the next year for about 1,000 Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers heading to the Middle East and Europe.

After Friday’s send-off the “Voyagers” of 1-171 will finish training in Texas and then deploy to Operation Freedom’s Sentinel in Afghanistan for about nine months, officials said.

Among those going was Chief Warrant Officer Clyde Pelekai Jr., a 47-year-old pilot who already has been to Iraq and Afghanistan with the unit.

Pelekai’s son, Clyde III, whose rank is specialist, will be heading out on the same deployment as a flight engineer after finishing a course in Pennsylvania. Clyde Pelekai IV, just over a year old, was at the ceremony with his mother, Courtney.

“Pretty exciting having family maybe not right there in the same vicinity (in Afghanistan), but we’re deploying together, going through the same hardships, and good times as well,” the chief warrant officer said.

The deployment ceremony highlighted the combination of experience and youth that will be on missions to transport troops and equipment in the remote and often mountainous part of the world. Earlier this year there were more than 15,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Chief Warrant Officer Chris Kerr, a pilot, is going on his fifth combat deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said. Spc. Nicholas Pa, 19, an aircraft mechanic, is going on his first.

Pa, a 2016 graduate of Hoala School in Wahiawa who has been in the National Guard for two years, said he thinks it will be a good experience, but there is plenty of uncertainty.

“I don’t really know exactly what to expect,” he said. “So I’m just waiting for that.”

Pelekai, the Chinook pilot, thinks the experience within the unit — he knows the terrain and territory — “is a huge advantage, especially if I’m going to be flying with the newer pilots that are inexperienced. So I can kind of show them the ins and outs.”

Col. Neal Mitsuyoshi, head of the 103rd Troop Command, the parent organization for the Chinook helicopter unit, said, “One of the hardest things to do as a commander is to take committed, loyal and selfless soldiers from their families and put them in harm’s way.

“But these soldiers standing in front of you here today prepare for this duty tirelessly, because they love each other, they love what they do and they love their country and their families,” he continued.

In 2011 a Chinook helicopter that went down in Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, was part of a replacement unit for the Hawaii’s Guard’s B Company, 1st Battalion, 171st Aviation, which had just finished its deployment.

About 150 Hawaii Guard soldiers had been based at four locations: Bagram Airfield, Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost province, FOB Shank and Kandahar Airfield.

In 2013 and 2014 about 120 of the Hawaii Chinook soldiers were spread across three regional commands in Afghanistan. The company flew over 1,100 combat missions, logged over 3,500 combat flight hours and transported over 24,000 personnel and over 2 million pounds or cargo, earning a Meritorious Unit Commendation.