Seven months after a mission of war, about 60 soldiers from Wheeler Army Airfield — all of them volunteers — are deploying to Pakistan on a mission of mercy.

Taking four CH-47 Chinook helicopters with them, the men and women from Company B , 214th Aviation Regiment, 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Brig-ade, will leave for Pakistan this weekend, possibly tomorrow, and are prepared to stay several weeks. Their job will be to ferry supplies and equipment to remote locations devastated by last week's 7.6 magnitude earthquake.

But with an estimated 35,000 killed by the temblor, they are also prepared to retrieve the dead.

Staff Sgt. 1st Class Geoff Hubbard, a flight engineer instructor, is among those who stepped forward for the mission, which will mean he'll have to leave his wife and two young children on their own again. Like most of the soldiers going to Pakistan, Hubbard returned in March after spending a year deployed to Af-ghanistan.

"What I hope to accomplish, being on a humanitarian mission, is to get as many of the people to a hospital as I can," he said. "We will probably be delivering a lot of food and water and a lot of shelter equipment. And we will probably be hauling out a lot of the dead.

"Hopefully, we will be getting them back to loved ones. That's our job. They need our help."

Hubbard said the helicopter crews will be flying at altitudes ranging from 5,000 to 12,000 feet. The environment will be full of hazards: rugged terrain, cold, bad weather, unknown wires the helicopters could clip and the effects of working at high altitude.

"High altitude imposes a lot of stress and fatigue on the body," Hubbard said. "You get fatigued more quickly. Your time aloft is reduced."

CHINOOKS ARE KEY

The Chinooks will be flown to Pakistan aboard a pair of Air Force C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft. Yesterday, civilian workers dismantled portions of the helicopters to prepare them. Engineers with the aviation company watched over the work; they'll have to reassemble the Chinooks when they arrive at an unspecified Pakistani military base near Islamabad.

The helicopters had just recently completed a thorough post-deployment inspection and were accepted for use again, said Col. Thomas Ball, commander of the aviation brigade. The initial work pace for his crews will be on a par with what they experienced while deployed to Afghanistan, where the big, twin-rotor Chinooks flew daily missions.

The heavy-lift helicopters, which will be part of a larger U.S. relief effort of 10 to 20 helicopters that will come together in Pakistan, are the key to the mission's success, Ball said. About a dozen pilots from Wheeler will be deployed along with mechanics, crew chiefs, engineers and a variety of other ground support personnel.

"Really, the only way to get critical supplies, particularly to higher elevations, will be with these helicopters," Ball said.

VOLUNTEER CREW

The aviation brigade got its deployment orders on Tuesday, launching a mad dash of preparation. Soldiers were asked to volunteer and then they had to explain their decision to family members, get up-to-date inoculations and organize their lives for a lengthy departure.

Ball dismissed the idea that the soldiers will miss Thanksgiving with their families, saying the mission would last weeks, not months. But he was cautious, too.

"I can't set an end date," said Ball, who is not making the trip. "They had a 5.6 ripple the other day. If there is continued chaos, we will stay as long as we can."

EAGER TO HELP

For Sgt. Noel Rao, 31, who will help reassemble the Chinooks in Pakistan, the mission has a special meaning. Rao immigrated to the United States five years ago from India.

"Having spent 26 years of my life in that part of the world, I know some of the difficulties they face after a natural disaster," Rao said. "It's nice to know I can help in my own little way."

Also deploying to a relief mission next week will be a team from the Hawai'i National Guard, which is leaving Monday for Louisiana to support the relief efforts for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The National Guard will set up its emergency system and be a part of the small technical operations center.

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.