"The water was so blue and the sun's beams shining through it look like prisms," said Calvert, a native of Cambridge, Ohio. It was, he said, "my best memory."

It's a memory that he will recall often during the next 12 months in Mosul, Iraq.

Calvert is among 250 soldiers from the 17th Corps Support Battalion — part of the 45th Corps Support Group — who will go to Mosul early next week to support the 25th Infantry Division (Light) 1st Brigade Combat Team from Fort Lewis, Wash.

A deployment ceremony for the departing soldiers was held yesterday at Hamilton Field at Schofield Barracks.

The soldiers of the 17th Corps Support Battalion are among a growing number of Hawai'i-based military units that have been deployed.

Amy Hartung, with daughter Kylee, will be in Reno, Nev., with family while her husband, Sgt. Brad Hartung, is in Iraq. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Calvert, chief of a maintenance support team, is confident his family will manage in his absence. "My son is going to have a lot of responsibility and he'll probably grow up a lot while I'm away."

Soldiers from the battalion's Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, and 536th Maintenance Company received their deployment orders in June and most families have made plans.

Sgt. Brad Hartung is relieved to know that his wife, Amy; 3-year-old daughter, Michaela; and 5-month-old twins, Kalab and Kylee, will be with family in Reno, Nev., while he's in Iraq. Hartung and his family have been in Hawai'i for two years.

"We kept hearing there was a chance they were going ... and it's been kind of nerve-wracking since we found out," said Amy Hartung. "He's got a job to do, so I've got to be strong for the kids and do my part.

"I'm only sad that he's going to miss everything: the twins starting to crawl, walk and talk," she added. "But I'll be near his and my family in Reno and I have faith he'll come back because he has a lot to come back to."

Second Lt. Mark Dudley, of the 536th Maintenance Company, plays with son Brian, 2, after the deployment ceremony. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

"It'll be hard while he's away but we always knew (deployment) might come," Jamie Pullen said. "School will help to keep me busy." Four Hawai'i-born soldiers are in the deployment group.

They are Sgt. 1st Class Darlene (Sakai) Shakur, a Radford High graduate; Staff Sgt. Randy Perez, a 15-year Army veteran from Campbell High; Sgt. Shawn Judd from Wai'anae; and Lance Olivares of Mililani.

Shakur's husband, Jerry, is a first sergeant in the Army assigned to Tripler. The couple has two sons, ages 7 and 10.

"There's a lot of mixed emotions," Shakur said of her 12-month deployment. "As a wife and mother, I'm confident my family will be all right. As a soldier, this is what I'm prepared to do when duty calls.

Perez and his wife, "Birdie," have four sons, ages 5, 4, 2 and 1. While he's away, his family will be living near relatives in 'Ewa Beach.

Perez and Olivares are taking a bit of Hawai'i with them to Iraq. Each has a Hawaiian flag and a supply of Spam.

In addition, Perez is packing a rice cooker, wok and supply of Hawaiian Sun juices while Olivares won't leave town without his furikake.

"You know all the local guys are going to get together once in a while," Olivares said.

Lt. Michele Parlette-Brown of Ashland, Ore., won't get a chance to say aloha in person to her husband, Army Capt. Kirk Brown, who is in South Carolina. In fact, the couple have been together twice since December.

"We understand this is our job," Parlette-Brown said. "This is what I joined to do."

For Parlette-Brown, a supply warehouse platoon leader, the biggest concern is the three- to four-day convoy from Kuwait to northern Iraq. "We've done a lot of convoy training and we're prepared for any improvised terror attack," she said. "But you never know."