A public send-off has been scheduled for Saturday at Aloha Stadium for 1,700 Hawai'i Army National Guard and Reserve soldiers heading to Kuwait and Iraq.

The ceremony will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and includes a special "offering of aloha" attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the largest group hug.

Gov. Linda Lingle, U.S. Sens. Daniel K. Inouye and Daniel K. Akaka, U.S. Rep. Mazie K. Hirono, Lt. Gov. James R. "Duke" Ainoa Jr., and the adjutant general for Hawai'i, Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, are expected to attend the ceremony.

The 1,200 Hawai'i National Guard soldiers and 500 reservists will be mobilized for active duty next Tuesday and will start leaving that day on flights for further training at Fort Hood in Texas.

The soldiers will leave from there for about nine months in Kuwait starting in late October.

"We are going to send off our 29th (Infantry Brigade Combat Team) and the 100th, 442nd Infantry again in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom," Lee said. "The deployment ceremony is an opportunity for loved ones to say aloha to our soldiers as one unit in Aloha Stadium."

The citizen soldiers' mission is threefold. Some will provide security at several installations in Kuwait, while others will be the camp command cell performing mayoral duties.

More than 1,000 of the soldiers will be tasked with providing security for convoys traveling north into Iraq on missions that could last days or weeks.

The 29th Brigade was last mobilized in August 2004, and deployed to Kuwait and Iraq for a year in early 2005.

Parking is free for Saturday's send-off, and gates will open at 6 a.m. Stadium seating gates will open at 8 a.m.

Companies and organizations including the Elks Lodge, Tri-West, BAE Systems, USO, Girl Scouts and others are donating bentos and drinks for the deploying soldiers and their families, officials said.

At the conclusion of the official portion of the ceremony, attendees will attempt to break the group hug world record of 6,623 people set in Mexico.

The National Guard said the idea to set the record came from Ashley Kakazu, a 10-year-old Punahou student. The soldiers on the field and families in the stands will participate.

Families and friends of the 29th Brigade also are asked to bring a canned food item to help the Food Bank.