The August date is a month sooner than what Hawai'i Guard leaders originally expected. The orders came Friday and the soldiers were notified over the last few days.

Nearly 2,000 men and women with the 29th Separate Infantry Brigade will muster at Kalaeloa for several weeks of preliminary training, said Maj. Charles Anthony, Guard spokesman.

After that, they will travel to Fort Bliss, Texas sometime in October, Anthony said. In January, the soldiers will need to earn their combat certification at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La.

Nothing is certain at this point, but Hawai'i Guard leaders are optimistic that the troops will be able to spend time at home between the two Mainland training sessions.

The brigade's 12-month mission to Iraq will begin sometime in February when the Hawai'i soldiers arrive in Balad, a city north of Baghdad in the volatile Sunni Triangle. They will replace the 81st Brigade of the Washington Army National Guard.

"It stands to reason there would be a gap there for Christmas and New Year's and they could be home, but we don't have a crystal ball to look that far forward," Anthony said. "It seems likely, though."

Training for the deployment is expected to be rigorous on several levels.

"There is going to be a tremendous amount of physical training, calisthenics," Anthony said. "But in the broader sense there will be a lot of physical training in terms of being able to comfortably carry the individual body armor with its ceramic tiles, which can be very heavy."

The armor weighs about 35 pounds.

But those soldiers who live on O'ahu will be able to go home at night during their Hawai'i-based training, Anthony said. Housing is still uncertain for the approximately 600 Neighbor Island soldiers, he said.