You can figure out a lot about the Hawai'i National Guard's upcoming deployment to Kuwait and Iraq by looking at the experience of the unit that preceded them.

In this case, that's the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat team, made up of about 1,600 National Guard soldiers from Ohio, and another 900 from Michigan.

The 37th Brigade started arriving in Kuwait in late March. Some units expect to be back home for Christmas, meaning about nine months overseas.

The mission for about 1,700 Hawai'i National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers — augmented by several hundred troops from Oklahoma — would seem to closely mirror that of the 37th Brigade.

Beginning in late October or early November, the Hawai'i soldiers will assume management and security responsibilities at bases around Kuwait, but more than 1,000 soldiers will be regularly escorting convoys far into Iraq.

The Hawai'i soldiers just arrived at Fort Hood, Texas, for two months of deployment lead-up training.

First, the good news.

Col. Richard T. Curry, the 37th Brigade's commander, said by e-mail recently that he had not experienced any "major injuries due to hostile fire" after five months overseas.

He's speaking about Iraq. Kuwait is a much safer place.

"Enemy activity has been low to date, however, we have had (improvised explosive devices) and small-arms fire against our escort vehicles during convoy operations," Curry said. "The danger always exists, but with the right training, vigilance and mission posture, we have been able to mitigate any major problems along convoy routes."

Curry said convoy duty is "every day, 24/7. I have over 1,208 soldiers conducting that duty right now."

Curry said the time spent in Iraq before returning to Kuwait depends on the mission, but some of those missions last 15 to 17 days for a trip to Mosul, in northern Iraq, and back.

On average, most escort missions are four to seven days, he said.

Col. Bruce Oliveira, the commander of Hawai'i's 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, has said his troops would be in Kuwait at camps Buehring, Virginia and Arifjan, as well as Kuwait Naval Base and Ali Al Salem air base.

Curry said some of his soldiers travel a lot between the bases, but those assigned base-camp operations stay on that base most of the time.

Additional missions are carried out by "quick reaction forces" and "area reaction forces," which are outside bases on a daily basis.

There is no regular leave in Kuwait, including Kuwait City, Curry said. Soldiers have to go to Qatar or somewhere else outside Kuwait for that.

Capt. Micah Bell, who is with the Michigan Army National Guard in Kuwait, has a blog of his experiences, first at Fort Hood and then in Kuwait, at couragewithoutfear.type pad.com.

On June 29, he wrote in Kuwait that "sand is an equalizer. When there are storms, none of us can see. Good guys, bad guys and other guys."

"We always worry that when we're not (on convoy trips in Iraq), troops aren't getting the supplies they need, and the bad guys are getting time to plot against us," Bell said. "But no, not so much. Every (forward operating base) and camp 'up north' has several days' worth of supplies on hand."

The insurgents don't like going out in sandstorms any more than the Americans, Bell said.

The Ohio and Michigan soldiers spent more than 80 days at Fort Hood for the training that's just starting for Hawai'i's citizen soldiers. The Columbus Dispatch, which reported on the Ohio soldiers, said training became a monotonous routine that blurred the days at the 335-square-mile base, where all the white-painted two-story cinder-block barracks look alike.

IN BRIEF

DIVING AND SALVAGE UNIT GETS NEW COMMANDER AFTER A BUSY 12 MONTHS

The Pearl Harbor-based Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1 held a change of command July 23 at the USS Utah Memorial on Ford Island.

Cmdr. John Moulton relieved Cmdr. Daniel M. Colman.

The unit's been busy.

In the last 12 months, the unit has been in Kazakhstan, Iraq, Kuwait, Kenya, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and Japan, to name just some of the countries. Colman said MDSU-1's missions included a trip to Palau to recover the remains of Americans lost in World War II, mixed-gas dives in the Gulf of Thailand to confirm the identity of the lost World War II submarine USS Lagarto and an aircraft salvage in the Persian Gulf.

ANOTHER OFFICER IN THE FAMILY

Retired Marine Col. Gene Castagnetti, a Silver Star recipient, was mighty proud to help commission his grandson, Christopher Keoni Castagnetti, a second lieutenant in the Marines on Aug. 9.

Many on O'ahu know Christopher's granddad as director of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

Christopher Castagnetti, 24, is a 2002 Kamehameha Schools grad. His father, Frank, from Hilo, is a former Marine Corps sergeant, and also assisted in the commissioning.

The pinning took place at the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico, Va. Gene Castagnetti, who received a Silver Star for gallantry in action in Vietnam, said his grandson's commissioning was emotional.

"I was there at that same Officer Candidate School 47 years prior," Gene Castagnetti said. "I envy the fact that (Christopher) has such an adventure ahead of him."

Christopher Castagnetti earned the school's leadership award for the top leadership grade among 856 officer candidates.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.