This week the U.S. Army is commemorating its 250th birthday with a series of celebrations around the country. The Army, tracing its roots to rebels that fought the British, is older than the nation itself.
On Oahu on Monday, soldiers from every unit in Hawaii — a few thousand troops — gathered at Schofield Barracks on Weyand Field at dawn for an early morning run at the same time that comrades currently deployed to the Philippines also were running. The Army also dedicated a new gym facility honoring the family of a well-known Oahu
veteran.
As the sun rose, Gen. Ronald Clark, the commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, addressed soldiers at Schofield as well as in the Philippines — where it was just after midnight — in a live-feed broadcast to them before they began the run.
Clark told his troops “you stand on the front lines of freedom, on the forward edge — the tactical edge — of our Army. You are the theater Army of the Pacific in the most challenging time in the history of this region in our lifetimes. So thank you for what you do. Thank you for the manner in which you do it and the leadership that you provide every day, and the example you set for the United States of
America.”
Troops based out of Schofield and Fort Shafter have been conducting several exercises in the Philippines amid simmering tensions with China. In recent months, Hawaii Army units have been in the country for annual training exercises training with Philippine forces as well as bolstering infrastructure around Philippine military bases.
The South China Sea — a busy waterway that nearly one-third of all global trade travels through — has become increasingly militarized over the past decade. Beijing claims nearly the entire sea as its exclusive territory over the objections of neighboring countries, and the Chinese military has harassed and sometimes attacked fishermen and other marine workers from neighboring countries — especially the
Philippines.
The 25th Infantry Division’s Command Sgt. Maj. Shaun Curry, a veteran of the Army’s elite Ranger Regiment, said that soldiers in the Pacific today face very different challenges than he did in Iraq and in Afghanistan — lessons he and his comrades learned the hard way. Curry said that “when I went to combat for the first time, no one in my unit had deployed. I had a platoon leader, fresh out of college, I had a platoon sergeant who had been in the Army, close to a decade at that point, and neither one of them had seen combat.”
His generation of soldiers fought long, drawn-out wars and often deployed multiple times. But much of that generation is now moving on to civilian life with only more senior troops having memory of what it’s like. Curry said currently only about 20% of the 25th Infantry Division has ever deployed to an active conflict zone. But Curry also said watching the conflict in Ukraine, where drones and other tech are changing the game, means everyone has to learn and adapt to keep up.
Curry, who hails from Wisconsin, has been with the division since 2020 and said he’s come to feel close to Hawaii. His daughter attended University of Hawaii at Manoa and his son attended UH Hilo and recently joined the Hawaii National Guard.
“This field here, Weyand Field, is named after the commanding general that took the division into Vietnam,” Curry said. “But this field is also on the Leilehua Plains. So for kamaaina, this is where the warriors came to trade, and then they went up to the top, and that’s where they fought. So this is something that is sacred to the Hawaiian people and something we need to take responsibility for.”
After the run, the 25th held a cake-cutting ceremony with the division’s oldest and youngest serving soldiers cutting it with an Army saber.
As soldiers ended the run to return to their duties, Curry and division commander Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans prepared for another ceremony. Friends of the family of the late Command Sgt. Maj. Henry Lee gathered at a new gym named in his honor.
Lee was born in 1930 in Castner Village, just outside of Schofield, attending Leilehua High School before enlisting in 1946 at the age of 15. His career would take him to Europe and Asia, but it ultimately brought him back to Hawaii to serve with the 25th. In 1968 during a deployment to Vietnam with the division, he earned a Purple Heart when a helicopter he was in was shot down.
Lee was the first Korean American to become an Army command sergeant major. After leaving the Army he continued his education in Hawaii and became an educator, teaching social studies at Nanakuli and Waianae public schools and went on to a long career of public service, ultimately retiring in 1989 but continuing to be civically engaged until his death in 2023 at age 92.
“(His service) exemplifies a life well lived, the generational leadership manifests itself today on the plains of Leilehua, on the fields in the jungles in the Philippines, here at Schofield Barracks, across the Pacific and across our ohana,” Evans said. “Command Sgt. Maj. Lee’s family exemplifies generational leadership that has been passed down from one generation to the next and is represented by you all here today.”
Lee’s son, Henry Lee Jr., told the Honolulu Star-
Advertiser “Dad has
24 years in the service and all his contributions, and we’re just so happy that they were able to honor him this way. … We grew up in the military over the years, so this is a part of our life.”
The Army will continue holding events, including a public community day around Fort DeRussy in Waikiki until the service’s
actual birthday on Saturday.
