SCHOFIELD BARRACKS — The Schofield community today held a send-off for 4,500 Schofield Barracks soldiers heading to Iraq.

State officials and Lt. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, U.S. Army Pacific commander, and Maj. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr., the 25th Division commander, offered remarks.

Several units, including the 25th Division headquarters and 3rd Brigade Combat Team, will roll up their unit colors and store them in flag casings for travel, signifying the beginning of the scheduled 12-month deployment.

The units will begin deploying to northern Iraq later this month. Caslen will be in charge of U.S. efforts in northern Iraq.

The commanding general of the 25th Infantry Division will head to northern Iraq in October with a shrinking number of U.S. forces and as the landscape has changed from security and raids to stability and reconstruction.

Caslen will have three combat brigades — including the 3,500-soldier 3rd brigade at Schofield — under his command in the Pennsylvania-sized region of northern Iraq.

By comparison, a predecessor from Schofield had as many as five combat brigades on a 2006-07 deployment to the same region.

In a previous interview, Caslen said he's OK with the smaller force he'll have in northern Iraq.

Caslen, who took over command of the 25th Infantry Division in May, talked about the upcoming deployment yesterday at a big mission rehearsal exercise at Schofield.

In Iraq, Caslen will have under his command the 3rd brigade from Schofield; the 1st Stryker brigade out of Fort Lewis, Wash.; and the 3rd brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas.

Additionally, he'll have aviation, engineer and artillery fire brigades, and some smaller units.