PUHI — In most ways, it looked like just about any other high-school-graduation celebration. Most guests probably couldn’t even feel the sense of urgency felt by family members of the celebrant, Jensine Soria of Puhi, a member of the Kaua’i
PUHI — In most ways, it looked like just about any other high-school-graduation celebration.
Most guests probably couldn’t even feel the sense of urgency felt by family members of the celebrant, Jensine Soria of Puhi, a member of the Kaua’i High School Class of 2005.
But the party had been thrown together quickly, to accommodate Vic Soria, the celebrant’s father, who got last-minute word that his leave from his Hawaii Army National Guard unit in Iraq had been approved.
He missed his eldest daughter’s graduation ceremony at Vidinha Stadium earlier this month, but was able to make the party at Kilohana Carriage House here Sunday.
Vic Soria, a sergeant with the Hawaii Army National Guard’s Company A, 2nd Battalion, 299th Infantry Regiment, must return to the war zone on Tuesday, June 21.
Given the choice of May or June for his leave month, he chose June, hoping to be able to make Jensine Soria’s graduation festivities. “I really missed (not being here for) the graduation ceremony,” he said.
As soon as family members got word of when he would be back on Kaua’i, preparations for the party went into high gear. His brothers and other close family members cooked the food for the party, and his immediate family did most of the party planning.
“That’s why I appreciate my wife dealing with all these things, and the rest of my family.”
Before he left Iraq for a two-week leave, he was assigned checkpoint duty along a 10-mile stretch of road leading from Camp Victory South to Baghdad International Airport.
Assigned to Camp Victory South, he said his unit has encountered some vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED), but that no Americans have been injured during his watch. Some Iraqi civilians have been injured, though, he said.
When he returns, he figures he will have about another year of deployment. The day he leaves will be hard on both himself and his family, he said.
“They’re more happy when they see me again. I miss my family” the most, he said.
He thinks that, when he returns to Iraq, the country will be safer for him and the other Kaua’i servicemen and women stationed there, based on what he has observed during his four months in the country.
While in Iraq, he manages to talk with members of his family at least once a week, and said it is nice to have communication with them. That, of course, doesn’t come close to replacing the feelings he feels when he is able to be with them in person, he said. Vic Soria, 53, is in the housekeeping department of the Sheraton Kauai Resort in Po’ipu, and lives with his family in Puhi. Wife Gloria and he have three daughters: Jensine, 18; Alysha, 11; and Victoria, 9.
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