The news follows a similar alert last week for about 350 Hawai'i-based Army reservists with the 411th Engineer Battalion.

More Guard and Reserve forces from Hawai'i are likely to be mobilized, but there has been no warning given to one of the biggest units, the Guard’s 29th Separate Infantry Brigade with 2,500 mostly civilian soldiers here.

National Guard spokesman Maj. Chuck Anthony today confirmed that Charlie Company, 193rd Aviation, may be mobilized early next year for duty in the Central Command area of responsibility.

Anthony said the soldiers include flight crews, administrative personnel and fuel loaders.

"In very generic terms, they’ll be ferrying troops and supplies between various military posts or stations," Anthony said.

Earlier this month, a Chinook helicopter was brought down by a surface-to-air missile west of Baghdad, killing 16 soldiers.

Sgt. 1st Class Kelly Bolor, a Maui native, was killed on Nov. 15 along with 16 others when two Black Hawk helicopters crashed in the northern Iraq city of Mosul.

The crashes raised congressional concern over helicopter protection, and Anthony said devices for flares and chaff — thin metal strips that can be dispersed to confuse a missile ÷ are being installed on the Chinooks.

"Even as we speak, the latest electronic counter-measures are being installed on them," Anthony said, adding he couldn’t divulge some of those measures.

Sixty-two Hawai'i Guard personnel from B Company, 193rd Aviation deployed in August to Afghanistan to help the Army’s 10th Mountain Division with helicopter maintenance.

Anthony said the Pentagon typically has been using 18-month mobilizations, and the Chinook crews could be subject to that time frame, with several months of preparation at Schofield Barracks to get camouflage gear, shots and small-arms qualification.

The Reserve deployments are typically for a year in the country of operation.

Charlie Company, 193rd Aviation was created in the mid-1990s, and the unit has taken part in fire suppression in Hawai'i, but the Iraq duty would represent its first combat deployment.

The Hawai'i Army National Guard has about 3,000 soldiers, and the Hawai'i Air National Guard has about 2,500 personnel. The Army Guard has eight Black Hawk and three OH-58 helicopters. None has been deployed yet.