Valley High grad returns from Afghanistan, gulf

Dick Benoit

Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004 | 9:15 a.m.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Keoni Paraz, Valley High School class of 2000 and son of Christine Paraz of Las Vegas, recently returned from a seven-month deployment to Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea while assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, homebased at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

According to the Navy's Fleet Hometown News Service, during their time in Afghanistan Paraz's unit confiscated and destroyed over 10,000 pieces of ordnance, explosives and weapons, helped register 58,000 Afghan citizens to vote, treated over 2,000 medical and dental patients and conducted more than a dozen major combat offensives in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Paraz's unit is an expeditionary intervention force with the ability to rapidly organize for combat operations in virtually any environment.

Marines in combat

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Bradley Fleegle, son of John Fleegle of Las Vegas, and Marine Corps Lance Cpl Jeffrey Roberson, a 2002 graduate of Eldorado High School, along with more than 2,100 Marines and sailors assigned to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, recently conducted operations in Najaf, Iraq, while stationed at Forward Operating Base Hotel, Iraq.

According to the Navy's Fleet Hometown News Service, members of the 11th MEU battled against Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia in the opening days of fighting in a huge cemetery, considered sacred to Shia Muslims.

The unit is deployed with the Belleau Wood Expeditionary Strike Group to the Western Pacific and Central Command area of responsibility in support of the global war on terrorism. It is an expeditionary intervention force with the ability to rapidly organize for combat operations in virtually any environment.

Bonanza grad on new destroyer

Navy Fireman Apprentice Justin Gaines, Bonanza High School class of 2003 and son of Rosie and Corneilus Gaines of Las Vegas, recently participated in the commissioning ceremony for the Navy's newest destroyer, USS Chung-Hoom (DDG-93) homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

According to the Navy's Hometown News Service, the Chung-Hoon is the latest Arleigh Burke-class Aegis equipped guided missile destroyer and named after the late Rear Admiral Gordon P. Chung-Hoon, who, as a lieutenant at the start of World War II, was attached to USS Arizona (BB-39) when it was attacked and sunk at Pearl Harbor.

In brief