CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — Sgt. 1st Class Francis Hapenney, 58, is a Vietnam War combat veteran using his accumulated knowledge to help a younger generation of soldiers.

Staff Sgt. Samuel Makaiwi, 55, is a veteran Moloka'i scout who got a cherished Combat Infantryman Badge on his first combat deployment, 31 years after joining the Hawai'i National Guard.

Under a canopy and sitting at a wooden picnic table on another 90-degree night in Baghdad, they are kindred souls and aging warriors who feel privileged to be doing their part.

"We just sit down here every night and talk about family, that's about it," said Hapenney, who lives in 'Ewa Beach.

Staff Sgt. Dennis "Speed" Takahashi is part of the group. He's 59, and "months older than I am," Hapenney said jokingly, as if those months were years.

Within the 29th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq, there are soldiers in their teens to 60, the mandatory retirement age.

It is a unique aspect of a war in which approximately 40 percent of U.S. troops are drawn from National Guard and Reserve units.

Young and old work side by side, often for 12-hour shifts, and find quiet places like the canopied spot in the motor pool of the 2nd Battalion, 299th Infantry to gather afterward.

On this night, a cooler inside a wooden work room has cold soft drinks and nonalcoholic beer, a big Hawai'i flag is tacked on the wall, and a CD of Hawaiian music sung by Lei'ohu Ryder — the sister of a staff sergeant in the battalion — plays in the background.

For Makaiwi, the Iraq deployment is the culmination of Army service that began with two years of active duty in 1970. His son, Spc. Tadd Makaiwi, 30, is part of the same battalion and company in Iraq.

A neighbor of Makaiwi's talked him into joining the National Guard and Moloka'i scouts — an infantry job that's the eyes and ears of the battalion — after his active-duty tour.

"At that time, it wasn't about recruiting. They hand-picked. It was a special platoon. I was fortunate to be hand-picked," said Makaiwi, who works full time for the Guard when not mobilized, and lives in Hilo now.

Over many years of involvement in the Guard, strong ties developed.

"The National Guard is like family; that's what it is, family support," Makaiwi said. "It's more like a culture. The National Guard, we stay in and master our job."

On Feb. 24, while providing security for a supply convoy headed from Camp Victory near Baghdad International Airport to Logistical Support Area Anaconda 50 miles to the north, Makaiwi's armored Humvee and another were hit by small-arms fire. No one was injured.

"You hear it. You can tell," he had said earlier, picking up a handful of rocks and throwing them hard against a Humvee, the sound echoing from inside.

The Combat Infantryman Badge, for participating in active combat operations, is one of the infantryman's greatest prizes.

"That was one of my goals," said Makaiwi, who wants to stay in the Guard until he's 60 and has to leave. "To me, that's the ultimate badge. Just the badge alone tells the story."

For Hapenney, Iraq is a return to war, albeit a very different one. He was with the 4th Automatic Weapons Battalion, 60th Artillery Regiment in 1967 and 1968 and saw combat in Pleiku in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

"U.S. 50012791, I still remember my (service) number," he says.

Part of his duty was manning a Duster, a tank with twin 40mm anti-aircraft guns used for ground fire. It's now museum piece at Fort Bliss in Texas, Hapenney said.

It's a different kind of war here, he said.

"The Vietcong, they came after the Americans, they didn't kill their own people," he said.

He remembers artillery rounds flying overhead and hearing mini-guns and helicopters firing.

"We don't have that here, so it's kind of a false sense of security," Hapenney said. "It's real easy to get complacent here."

In Iraq, he's in charge of maintenance for the battalion's vehicles. He didn't have to come to Iraq, but felt a sense of responsibility. At home he works full time for the Guard teaching vehicle mechanics.

"We go above and beyond. We want to make sure they have what they need," Hapenney said.

"When they go out, they know they can get home."

He added that "if there's one thing that I do while I'm here that saves one soldier's life, then it's all worth it to me."

Both men are pretty fit, which they say has helped on the deployment. Body armor weighs 40 pounds or more with ammunition, and Baghdad temperatures already are in the 115- to 120-degree range.

"It's all about conditioning. It's definitely about being in shape," Makaiwi said. "You feel it. You just have your limits. You really slow down, take smaller steps."

For Makaiwi, the deployment is a chance to put into practice what he's always trained for. It's just taken 31 years.

"We all started when we were young," Makaiwi said. "We always looked up to the older soldiers with 20 years. Now, we're the older soldiers looking after the young soldiers."