State, families pay respects to fallen

The Legislature never envisioned its annual Hawaii Medal of Honor recognition for fallen service members would continue for seven years.

After that span of time, there will be a sameness to this year’s 2 p.m. Wednesday ceremony during a special joint session, but an absolute uniqueness for those receiving the koa-framed medal on behalf of loved ones who were killed in service to the nation over the past year.

The strain of that recent loss is always there, to lesser or greater degrees, on the faces of family members appreciative of the state’s honor and trying to be brave themselves.

Nani Vickers will be there for her husband, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Kraig Vickers, 36, an explosive ordnance disposal specialist from Maui. Attached to a SEAL unit, he was among 30 Americans killed on Aug. 6 when their Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.

Vickers’ mother, father and two brothers also will be there, event organizers said.

The family of Schofield Barracks Army Spc. Levi Nuncio, 24, who was killed on June 22 in Afghanistan, is coming from Harrisonburg, Va., for the recognition. Nuncio’s mother, father, brother and a nephew will be there.

Army 1st Lt. Katie del Castillo will be there for her husband, 1st Lt. Dimitri del Castillo, 24, another Schofield soldier from the same unit as Nuncio, the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry, who was killed just days later on June 25 in a firefight in Afghanistan.

Katie and Dimitri del Castillo were newlyweds who married before the deployment.

“It’s a very big honor and it’s good to see that he (Dimitri) is not forgotten,” said Katie del Castillo, who was on the same deployment as her husband and now is back in Hawaii.

“It’s nice to be honored by Hawaii because this was such a magical place for us,” she said. “We loved living here, and Dimitri wrote me a card actually on the day we deployed and said that his time in Hawaii had been the best time of his life.”

This year, the Legislature will individually recognize 24 fallen service members whose names will be read out, followed by the twin toll of a ship’s bell and presentation of the Medal of Honor to family members. All were killed in Afghanistan.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie and Maj. Gen. Darryll Wong, state adjutant general, will greet the families. The ceremony in the House chambers is open to the public.

Last year, 17 were recognized. The office of Rep. K. Mark Takai, who each year coordinates the labor-intensive effort to invite in families for the honor, said 308 service members with Hawaii ties have died or been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003.

Takai, a Hawaii Army National Guard major who sponsored the original bill for the Hawaii Medal of Honor, said the recognition came about in 2005 when deployments from Hawaii started picking up and the 29th Brigade Combat Team of the Hawaii National Guard was sent to Iraq.

The first joint session of the Legislature to honor the fallen was held the following year.

“I think many of us were concerned with the fact that we were sending our loved ones into battle, and because of that, there was some understanding that some people weren’t going to come home. We wanted to do something,” Takai said.

When the Legislature began the annual Hawaii Medal of Honor presentation, “we didn’t even consider an exit strategy, we didn’t consider this thing going on for this long,” he said.

“Seven years later, we’re still doing it, and I tell people that the plan eventually is not to have this ceremony, and that would mean that we’re done — the war is done,” Takai said.

Hotels provide discounted rates for the families, and historic sites such as the Bowfin submarine, Battleship Missouri and Pacific Aviation Museum offer free admission, Takai’s office said.

It’s also a chance for families to meet and spend time with “battle buddies” who served alongside those who died.

Alaska and New Hampshire also now similarly recognize fallen troops, Takai said.