Posted on: Wednesday, July 21, 2004

War a step closer to home

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

The citizen soldiers with Hawai'i's Army National Guard moved a step closer to war after receiving orders this weekend to report for active duty Aug. 16, the first step of a yearlong deployment in Iraq.

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 past few days.

And in another sign of the strains on the U.S. military in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and the Iraq war, the Pentagon for the first time is considering extending the mobilization of National Guard soldiers who will soon hit the federal limit of 24 months of active service, defense officials said yesterday.

Regarding the Hawai'i troops, 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 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.

"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.

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 Neighbor Island soldiers, he said.

The decision to extend the deployments of Guard troops, would initially affect approximately 450 soldiers of the Arkansas National Guard who are in Iraq with the 39th Brigade Combat Team. The soldiers, mobilized after Sept. 11 and first sent to the Sinai Peninsula on a peacekeeping rotation, are the first group of Guard members to approach the 24-month limit that the Pentagon established days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Waiving the limit ultimately might lead to extended deployments for thousands of other reservists and Guard members in Iraq and Afghanistan, and provide ammunition to critics in Congress who are pushing the Bush administration to increase the size of the military.

This article contains information from the Los Angeles Times. Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.