A deployment ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Wheeler Army Airfield for six Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers deploying to Africa.

Detachment 55, an Army aviation unit, will soon begin training at Fort Benning, Ga., before deploying to Djibouti to join Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

Detachment 55 operates a C-26 aircraft, a twin engine turboprop that can carry a pilot and a co-pilot and 19 passengers and/or cargo.

The Detachment 55 pilots flew in support of the recovery operations after Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

Since then, its pilots have flown more than 8,800 hours in support of missions including inter-island transportation for VIPs and National Guard troops, cargo, and burial details.

The C-26 is operated exclusively by Air and Army National Guard units around the country.

Djibouti hosts the only U.S. military base in sub-Saharan Africa, the National Guard said. It has about 1,800 troops and is a front-line state in the global war on terrorism.