Yomitan residents want soldier accused of hit-and-run turned over Japan protesters seek SOFA change
By Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, December 16, 2009
CAMP FOSTER — Yomitan residents rallied Sunday, demanding a U.S. soldier suspected in a fatal hit-and-run be turned over to Japanese authorities immediately.
Rally organizers claim about 1,500 residents gathered near Torii Station, urging both governments to expedite the investigation of the accident and to change the status of forces agreement.
The body of a 66-year-old Yomitan man was found Nov. 7 in bushes by the side of a village road. Three days later, a 27-year-old staff sergeant assigned to Torii Station was identified as the driver of a car that police suspect hit the man.
The soldier, however, refused questioning by Okinawa police after three sessions, claiming that a statement he gave them during an initial question was mistranslated.
"The service-member has fled into the military base, taking advantage of the status of forces agreement," said a protest resolution that was to be submitted to the Tokyo government.
The resolution called for a change in the SOFA, which allows for the U.S. military to retain custody prior to indictment of any service-member not arrested by Japanese police off base. The soldier, who lives in Yomitan, has been restricted to Torii Station pending the outcome of the investigation into the incident.
"While the suspect has been long identified, why don’t police ask for his custody?" Yomitan Mayor Keizo Yasuda, an organizer of the rally, said Sunday. Sunday’s protest continues Okinawa officials’ push to have the soldier turned over to Japan prior to indictment. The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution Dec. 6 advocating such a move.
Yasuda said he plans to visit U.S. Forces Japan headquarters at Yokota Air Base, the U.S. Embassy and Japanese government agencies in Tokyo next week.
Under the agreement, Japan is required to formally inform the military of the crime. After making the notification, Japan has 20 days to press charges, after which they can take custody of a suspect. As of Monday evening, no charges had been filed. Japanese police have said the soldier’s refusal to be questioned has slowed its investigation.
After a spate of high-profile crimes on Okinawa in 1995, the two countries agreed that the U.S. may consider early transfer of suspects in the case of heinous crimes, such as murder, rape or arson.
The soldier’s defense attorney, Toshimitsu Takaesu, said Monday he believed the 1995 "gentlemen’s agreement" would not apply to his client because he’d likely be charged with vehicular manslaughter, which isn’t considered a heinous crime.
Showing posts with label Soldier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soldier. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Tinian Soldier Killed in Bahrain
Mother of slain sailor says she has forgiven shooter
By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff
October 25, 2007
THE mother of the sailor from Tinian who was slain at an American military base in the Arab nation of Bahrain on Monday says she has forgiven her daughter’s assailant but seeks justice for her daughter.
“I am trying to understand the situation” said Jovita Paulino, a teacher at Tinian Jr. and High School “I pray for this man that he gets better. I don’t take justice unto my own hands. I am a Christian and Christians are forgiving.”
She added, “(The assailant) knows what he did and that’s between him and God. God will be the ultimate judge.”
Her daughter, Navy Seaman Anamarie San Nicolas Camacho, 20, and Navy Seaman Genesia M. Gresham, 19, of Lithonia, Georgia, were shot in a barracks at the military base around 5 a.m. on Oct. 22.
Authorities suspect that the shooter might have been jealous.
The other victim was his ex-girlfriend.
Paulino said the “closeness” between the two victims may have been misunderstood.
“Wait for the truth. Who knows about my daughter other than me? It’s not like that,” she said.
The male sailor remains in critical condition after shooting himself.
Camacho entered the U.S. Navy a year ago and was assigned to the 5th Fleet in Bahrain.
Her mother said the young sailor, who is described by Tinian community members as “smart” and determined, was a defender of those who were aggrieved.
“My daughter was a person who cared about people. She would fight for you. She was an individual who would not let anyone trample on you. She would defend you if people belittled you,” she said.
She said her daughter had always wanted to join the armed forces and dreamt of contributing her talents to promote the ideals of the United States — freedom and justice.
Her remains are expected to be flown to the Northern Marianas next week.
The U.S. Navy continues to investigate the incident.
By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff
October 25, 2007
THE mother of the sailor from Tinian who was slain at an American military base in the Arab nation of Bahrain on Monday says she has forgiven her daughter’s assailant but seeks justice for her daughter.
“I am trying to understand the situation” said Jovita Paulino, a teacher at Tinian Jr. and High School “I pray for this man that he gets better. I don’t take justice unto my own hands. I am a Christian and Christians are forgiving.”
She added, “(The assailant) knows what he did and that’s between him and God. God will be the ultimate judge.”
Her daughter, Navy Seaman Anamarie San Nicolas Camacho, 20, and Navy Seaman Genesia M. Gresham, 19, of Lithonia, Georgia, were shot in a barracks at the military base around 5 a.m. on Oct. 22.
Authorities suspect that the shooter might have been jealous.
The other victim was his ex-girlfriend.
Paulino said the “closeness” between the two victims may have been misunderstood.
“Wait for the truth. Who knows about my daughter other than me? It’s not like that,” she said.
The male sailor remains in critical condition after shooting himself.
Camacho entered the U.S. Navy a year ago and was assigned to the 5th Fleet in Bahrain.
Her mother said the young sailor, who is described by Tinian community members as “smart” and determined, was a defender of those who were aggrieved.
“My daughter was a person who cared about people. She would fight for you. She was an individual who would not let anyone trample on you. She would defend you if people belittled you,” she said.
She said her daughter had always wanted to join the armed forces and dreamt of contributing her talents to promote the ideals of the United States — freedom and justice.
Her remains are expected to be flown to the Northern Marianas next week.
The U.S. Navy continues to investigate the incident.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Kitty Hawk Sailor Arrested
Sailor arrested for damaging vehicles, attempted robbery
by Mindy Fothergill, KUAM News
Monday, August 20, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A sailor assigned to the U.S.S. Kittyhawk spent his liberty in jail after he was arrested on Friday night. The sailor was found damaging vehicles in a Tumon parking lot and attempted to rob an adult specialty store.
21-year-old Moses Jackson, Jr. was arrested by officers with the Guam Police Department's Tumon-Tamuning Precinct charged with attempted armed robbery, criminal mischief, and resisting arrest, just to name a few.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Mindy Fothergill, KUAM News
Monday, August 20, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A sailor assigned to the U.S.S. Kittyhawk spent his liberty in jail after he was arrested on Friday night. The sailor was found damaging vehicles in a Tumon parking lot and attempted to rob an adult specialty store.
21-year-old Moses Jackson, Jr. was arrested by officers with the Guam Police Department's Tumon-Tamuning Precinct charged with attempted armed robbery, criminal mischief, and resisting arrest, just to name a few.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, August 10, 2007
Guam: Recruiter's Paradise
U.S. territories: A recruiter's paradise
Army goes where fish are biting
Three of the country's poorest territories lead U.S. in volunteering for military
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 08/05/2007 12:21:44 AM MDT
Hundreds of additional recruiters are on duty. More latitude has been granted to pursue older recruits, high school dropouts, drug users and criminals. Enlistment bonuses are at all-time highs.
But hamstrung by an unpopular war in Iraq , Army recruiters nationwide have been treading water in their efforts to put new soldiers into uniform.
Still, for those who wear the eagle and torch insigne of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, the news is not all bleak. There are, in fact, some places where recruiting has never been better.
Those places just happen to be thousands of miles away from the mainland.
Between 2004 and 2006, enlistment into the Army by young men and women from three of the nation's poorest territories - American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands - more than doubled, according to military and census data compiled by the National Priorities Project.
The three territories, the combined population of which is about 315,000 residents, enlisted 333 new soldiers into the Army and Army Reserve in 2006. By comparison, the entire state of Utah - which has a population eight times greater and whose residents are among the top supporters of the war in Iraq - enlisted 498 new soldiers in the same year. (Army enlistment relative to youth population in Utah is among the lowest in the nation and has fallen 17 percent in the past three years, according to the project's data.)
Researchers say Utah 's unique religious make-up likely accounts for its low recruitment figures. Many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints train and work as missionaries at a time when their non-Mormon peers are considering military service.
But there's another thing young men and women in Utah and other low-recruiting states have going for them that those in the poorer territories don't: Economic opportunity.
And that, said Anita Dancs, research director for the nonprofit project that collects the recruitment data each year, makes the territories prime hunting grounds for Army recruiters.
"It's very clear what is going on," Dancs said. "Because of the war in Iraq , the Army hasn't recruited as many youth as it needs, so it's becoming more aggressive, focusing on youth with limited economic opportunities."
And in no place on U.S.-occupied soil are opportunities more limited than in the three territories where recruiting currently is best. In Samoa, for instance, tuna canning is the main enterprise, per capita income is less than $5,000 and, one federal report recently noted, residents exist "on an economic tier similar to Botswana ."
Only about 3 percent of high school graduates from the island receive scholarships or financial assistance from the Samoan government to continue their education, according to government officials.
In that climate, Dancs said, military bonuses - Army officials say top candidates can walk away with more than $80,000 in recruitment incentives - can be difficult to pass up.
Dancs believes recruiters "are obviously trying to portray the Army as a place for economic advantages to youth who are going to be most vulnerable to that message."
U.S. military recruiters have always looked to areas of low economic opportunity to meet the needs of the armed services, said Bernard Rostker, author of I Want You: The Evolution of the All-Volunteer Force.
"Historically the military has gotten many more recruits from the South, for instance," Rostker said. "The Northeast has never been a good place to recruit, but the South always has been. . . . So the density of recruiters in the South is much higher than the density of recruiters in New York or Boston ."
While the relatively small populations of America 's poor territories aren't likely to make the South Pacific a "New Dixie" for recruiters, the military does appear to be maximizing its potential in those places.
The Army had nine recruiters in Guam last year - about one for every 4,000 recruiting-age residents on the island. In Utah , the ratio was 1-to-9,000 after falling dramatically between 2005 and 2006, a year in which the Army stationed more recruiters in the territories and most other states.
Rostker wasn't surprised. "You don't reinforce failure," he said. "You go where the fishing is good."
Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Fort Knox-based Army Recruiting Command, dismissed the notion that the high rates of enlistment in the poor territories are tied solely to the dismal economies of those areas, but acknowledged that financial opportunities do play a role in any recruit's decision to join up.
"There are a combination of factors playing out," Smith said. "But obviously in the areas that have a high unemployment rate or lack of opportunities, the military probably does better.
"It's good that the Army and other services offer a way for people to pull themselves up by the bootstraps."
At the moment, of course, those bootstraps are attached to combat boots. And service members from the territories have suffered grievously in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The rate of death for American Samoan service members in the nation's ongoing wars is more than 10 times higher than the national average, according to Pentagon data. Guam and the Marianas also have death rates that, like their enlistment rates, are many times higher than any U.S. state.
Yet the number of Army recruits from Samoa nearly tripled between 2004 and 2006. And recruiters on the island appear to be making 2007 a banner year - even as the Navy, Air Force and Marines are all expanding their recruiting efforts on the island in response to the Army's successes. Still, Pataua Lavan said he doesn't feel exploited. And he doesn't believe the military is the only choice for young American Samoans, like himself, who are looking to begin a life off the island.
"But it's the option that I can see will benefit me the most," said Lavan, who was scheduled to fly to Honolulu this week to take the oath of enlistment.
Lavan's choice is a common one among his classmates. He estimated that about one in five students from his high school graduating class are enlisting in the military.
In Texas and California this week to visit Samoan and other Pacific Islander soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan , American Samoa Gov. Togiola Tulafono said he was "deeply, deeply touched and impressed by the courage, dedication and patriotism of these young Americans and their families."
Tulafono, a Democrat whose own soldier daughter served a tour of duty in Iraq in 2004, said he continues to encourage young Samoans to enlist, even "in the face of war deployment and an unusually high number of American Samoan servicemen and women losing their lives, or seriously injured, from this unfortunate war."
Susing Alivia, a businessman in the Samoan capital of Pago Pago , said the island's struggling economy is not the only reason why its young men and women join up.
"This is part of our culture," Alivia told The Salt Lake Tribune last month, shortly after the death of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Faoa Apineru, who was born on the island and buried in Utah , where much of his family lives. "Many of our children look forward to serving in the military, not only because of the financial and economic opportunities, but because of who we are. We have suffered much and we are sad, but we are also proud."
Recruiter Lima Pula, who answered the phone at the Army's recruiting office in Pago Pago, said he'd like to discuss recent recruiting successes, but said he simply didn't have the time.
Pula said he was busy signing up another new soldier.
mlaplante@sltrib.com
Army goes where fish are biting
Three of the country's poorest territories lead U.S. in volunteering for military
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 08/05/2007 12:21:44 AM MDT
Hundreds of additional recruiters are on duty. More latitude has been granted to pursue older recruits, high school dropouts, drug users and criminals. Enlistment bonuses are at all-time highs.
But hamstrung by an unpopular war in Iraq , Army recruiters nationwide have been treading water in their efforts to put new soldiers into uniform.
Still, for those who wear the eagle and torch insigne of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, the news is not all bleak. There are, in fact, some places where recruiting has never been better.
Those places just happen to be thousands of miles away from the mainland.
Between 2004 and 2006, enlistment into the Army by young men and women from three of the nation's poorest territories - American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands - more than doubled, according to military and census data compiled by the National Priorities Project.
The three territories, the combined population of which is about 315,000 residents, enlisted 333 new soldiers into the Army and Army Reserve in 2006. By comparison, the entire state of Utah - which has a population eight times greater and whose residents are among the top supporters of the war in Iraq - enlisted 498 new soldiers in the same year. (Army enlistment relative to youth population in Utah is among the lowest in the nation and has fallen 17 percent in the past three years, according to the project's data.)
Researchers say Utah 's unique religious make-up likely accounts for its low recruitment figures. Many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints train and work as missionaries at a time when their non-Mormon peers are considering military service.
But there's another thing young men and women in Utah and other low-recruiting states have going for them that those in the poorer territories don't: Economic opportunity.
And that, said Anita Dancs, research director for the nonprofit project that collects the recruitment data each year, makes the territories prime hunting grounds for Army recruiters.
"It's very clear what is going on," Dancs said. "Because of the war in Iraq , the Army hasn't recruited as many youth as it needs, so it's becoming more aggressive, focusing on youth with limited economic opportunities."
And in no place on U.S.-occupied soil are opportunities more limited than in the three territories where recruiting currently is best. In Samoa, for instance, tuna canning is the main enterprise, per capita income is less than $5,000 and, one federal report recently noted, residents exist "on an economic tier similar to Botswana ."
Only about 3 percent of high school graduates from the island receive scholarships or financial assistance from the Samoan government to continue their education, according to government officials.
In that climate, Dancs said, military bonuses - Army officials say top candidates can walk away with more than $80,000 in recruitment incentives - can be difficult to pass up.
Dancs believes recruiters "are obviously trying to portray the Army as a place for economic advantages to youth who are going to be most vulnerable to that message."
U.S. military recruiters have always looked to areas of low economic opportunity to meet the needs of the armed services, said Bernard Rostker, author of I Want You: The Evolution of the All-Volunteer Force.
"Historically the military has gotten many more recruits from the South, for instance," Rostker said. "The Northeast has never been a good place to recruit, but the South always has been. . . . So the density of recruiters in the South is much higher than the density of recruiters in New York or Boston ."
While the relatively small populations of America 's poor territories aren't likely to make the South Pacific a "New Dixie" for recruiters, the military does appear to be maximizing its potential in those places.
The Army had nine recruiters in Guam last year - about one for every 4,000 recruiting-age residents on the island. In Utah , the ratio was 1-to-9,000 after falling dramatically between 2005 and 2006, a year in which the Army stationed more recruiters in the territories and most other states.
Rostker wasn't surprised. "You don't reinforce failure," he said. "You go where the fishing is good."
Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Fort Knox-based Army Recruiting Command, dismissed the notion that the high rates of enlistment in the poor territories are tied solely to the dismal economies of those areas, but acknowledged that financial opportunities do play a role in any recruit's decision to join up.
"There are a combination of factors playing out," Smith said. "But obviously in the areas that have a high unemployment rate or lack of opportunities, the military probably does better.
"It's good that the Army and other services offer a way for people to pull themselves up by the bootstraps."
At the moment, of course, those bootstraps are attached to combat boots. And service members from the territories have suffered grievously in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The rate of death for American Samoan service members in the nation's ongoing wars is more than 10 times higher than the national average, according to Pentagon data. Guam and the Marianas also have death rates that, like their enlistment rates, are many times higher than any U.S. state.
Yet the number of Army recruits from Samoa nearly tripled between 2004 and 2006. And recruiters on the island appear to be making 2007 a banner year - even as the Navy, Air Force and Marines are all expanding their recruiting efforts on the island in response to the Army's successes. Still, Pataua Lavan said he doesn't feel exploited. And he doesn't believe the military is the only choice for young American Samoans, like himself, who are looking to begin a life off the island.
"But it's the option that I can see will benefit me the most," said Lavan, who was scheduled to fly to Honolulu this week to take the oath of enlistment.
Lavan's choice is a common one among his classmates. He estimated that about one in five students from his high school graduating class are enlisting in the military.
In Texas and California this week to visit Samoan and other Pacific Islander soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan , American Samoa Gov. Togiola Tulafono said he was "deeply, deeply touched and impressed by the courage, dedication and patriotism of these young Americans and their families."
Tulafono, a Democrat whose own soldier daughter served a tour of duty in Iraq in 2004, said he continues to encourage young Samoans to enlist, even "in the face of war deployment and an unusually high number of American Samoan servicemen and women losing their lives, or seriously injured, from this unfortunate war."
Susing Alivia, a businessman in the Samoan capital of Pago Pago , said the island's struggling economy is not the only reason why its young men and women join up.
"This is part of our culture," Alivia told The Salt Lake Tribune last month, shortly after the death of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Faoa Apineru, who was born on the island and buried in Utah , where much of his family lives. "Many of our children look forward to serving in the military, not only because of the financial and economic opportunities, but because of who we are. We have suffered much and we are sad, but we are also proud."
Recruiter Lima Pula, who answered the phone at the Army's recruiting office in Pago Pago, said he'd like to discuss recent recruiting successes, but said he simply didn't have the time.
Pula said he was busy signing up another new soldier.
mlaplante@sltrib.com
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Another Chamorro Dead in Iraq
Soldier comes home
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News
gdumat-ol@guampdn.com
May 16, 2007
The body of the latest Guam son to die in Iraq was expected to have arrived home earlier this morning.
Army Pfc. John D. Flores was 21.
He joined the Army in hopes of building a foundation for his young family's future. But Flores was killed May 3 in Baghdad, according to the Army.
He was father to 18-month old Chloe and husband to Charlene, who became the soldier's wife only a little more than a year ago.
The fallen hero will be buried with full military honors Saturday afternoon at the Guam Veterans Cemetery.
Flores's arrival was scheduled for 1:10 a.m. today, confirmed his mother-in-law, Cindy Kazuo.
The fallen soldier also leaves behind his mother, Christine Wertz, and other members of his extended family.
Flores was killed when his unit came under attack by enemy forces.
He is the 10th Guamanian and 18th person from the Micronesia region to be killed since the war on terror began, Pacific Daily News files state.
If you wish to join Flores's extended family in giving him a final good-bye, you can do so during the Saturday morning schedule for paying last respects, the afternoon funeral Mass at Santa Barbara Church in Dededo or the burial at the Guam Veterans Cemetery later that afternoon.
He will be accorded full military honors at his burial.
"We're opening this to anyone who wish him a final farewell," Kazuo said.
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News
gdumat-ol@guampdn.com
May 16, 2007
The body of the latest Guam son to die in Iraq was expected to have arrived home earlier this morning.
Army Pfc. John D. Flores was 21.
He joined the Army in hopes of building a foundation for his young family's future. But Flores was killed May 3 in Baghdad, according to the Army.
He was father to 18-month old Chloe and husband to Charlene, who became the soldier's wife only a little more than a year ago.
The fallen hero will be buried with full military honors Saturday afternoon at the Guam Veterans Cemetery.
Flores's arrival was scheduled for 1:10 a.m. today, confirmed his mother-in-law, Cindy Kazuo.
The fallen soldier also leaves behind his mother, Christine Wertz, and other members of his extended family.
Flores was killed when his unit came under attack by enemy forces.
He is the 10th Guamanian and 18th person from the Micronesia region to be killed since the war on terror began, Pacific Daily News files state.
If you wish to join Flores's extended family in giving him a final good-bye, you can do so during the Saturday morning schedule for paying last respects, the afternoon funeral Mass at Santa Barbara Church in Dededo or the burial at the Guam Veterans Cemetery later that afternoon.
He will be accorded full military honors at his burial.
"We're opening this to anyone who wish him a final farewell," Kazuo said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)