The soldiers in Kirkuk were to have been bound for the United States shortly after Christmas, when they were to turn over their area of operations to a replacement unit en route to Iraq. They had even instructed their families not to send holiday gifts because it would only add to the things they had to pack.

But now it appears it will be at least March before the brigade heads back to Hawai'i. Even worse, because most of their replacements will be in Iraq within weeks, there will be a shortage of living space. As a result, the soldiers of the 2nd Brigade are to be kicked out of the comfortable two-person trailers where they have been living and sent to cots in crowded tents, just as the cold, wet winter settles into this region of Iraq.

"It's an insult," one soldier complained as the news spread through the base Thursday.

The decision to raise troop strength will produce the highest level of U.S. forces in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. By the time of Iraq's scheduled January election, some 150,000 troops will be in the country, compared with 148,000 during the initial phases of the war. After the elections, numbers are expected to dip back down to about 138,000.

The goal, according to the Pentagon, is twofold: to ensure there are enough troops to respond to any spikes in violence in the weeks around the election and to continue the onslaught against insurgents in hot spots such as Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra.

"This will allow us to absolutely pile onto the enemy with about 30 percent more force," said Maj. Gen. John Batiste, the ranking commander in charge of the region, which includes the city of Kirkuk. "We can try to throw them off their game as we glide into the election."

Batiste was speaking Thursday afternoon at a meeting of high-ranking officers of the 25th Division and those of the 116th Brigade Combat Team, the Idaho National Guard unit that is to relieve the brigade in Kirkuk. The two units were going over their "relief in place" operation, a detailed plan that covers every step of turning over military control of a city. Because of the extension, though, it looks as if the two units actually will overlap in the city until after the election.

The official date of the transfer of power between the 2nd Brigade of the 25th and the 116th is now up in the air.

Lloyd Miles

But the colonel sees the tactical benefit in keeping his unit in Kirkuk a while longer.

"This was the city that people predicted would spiral into civil war after Saddam," Miles said, noting that Kirkuk is nearly evenly split between Muslims, Turkmen and Kurds. "But so far that hasn't happened. We know this city — all its ins and outs — and that will be extremely useful as we approach these elections."

Moreover, Miles said, because the city is such a complex mixture of ethnic groups with disparate interests, his soldiers can use the additional time to fully brief their incoming counterparts on details that might otherwise have been missed during a speedier transfer.

Still, the way the announcement of the unit's extension was handled has left some soldiers here a bit annoyed. Before the soldiers were notified, a press release was sent to the Hawai'i media.

"All the wives knew first," said Wing, the soldier eager to get home to meet his new son. "This is hardest on them, I think."

Capt. Jamie Garcia agreed: "We've put our heart and soul into this city for the past year and we feel like we have even more to do. We can lose ourselves in that, in the mission. They don't have that; it's much harder on the families and children."

But for the most part the soldiers here aren't complaining that much. Yes, they're sick of the bad food. Yes, they're tired of having to walk out into the cold night to relieve themselves.

But they have been at the scenes of roadside bombings and watched friends die, friends who won't ever go home to new babies or hot showers or fresh pizza.