Twenty-one O'ahu Army Reservists were gearing up yesterday for a public-affairs mission to the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Their skills could be put to the test quickly with the release this week of a United Nations report that said the facility should be closed because of allegations of torture.

The claim was quickly rebuffed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross "stayed there, lived there 24 hours a day" to observe conditions, Rumsfeld said.

"That place is being run as well as any detention facility can be run," Rumsfeld added.

The 305th Press Camp Headquarters soldiers will put out a weekly newspaper, broadcast news on radio and TV, and work with visiting media at the detention facility that houses about 500 detainees captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

As the Hawai'i soldiers packed up yesterday at Fort Shafter Flats, some said it's a mission they did not expect but are eager to undertake.

Most of the soldiers steered clear of the United Nations report. They'll be mobilized for active duty today and leave for Guantanamo in early March.

"I was ready for Iraq mentally, Iraq or Afghanistan, because those are the two places with the biggest activity," said 1st Lt. Anthony John, 37, an environmental health specialist with the state Health Department.

Sgt. Jonson Tulewa-Gibbs, 25, a University of Hawai'i art major, said he, too, was expecting duty in the Middle East. Instead, he'll be going to a corner of Cuba for a year.

"I think it will be a good mission. I'll be down there doing what I've trained to do for several years now," Tulewa-Gibbs said. That would be photojournalism.

"Compared to other places, (Guantanamo) is pretty safe," he added.

It's one of the first deployments to Guantanamo for a Hawai'i-based unit. All but a few soldiers with the 305th are deploying.

Hickam Air Force Base has had individual airmen deploy in support of Joint Task Force Guantanamo.

"I know that the 305th Press Camp Headquarters will go down and do a good public-affairs mission. I don't know about this (United Nations) report," John said.

The report, summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts who did not visit Guantanamo, said photographic evidence and testimony of former prisoners showed that detainees were shackled, chained, hooded and beaten if they resisted.

The five U.N. experts had sought invitations from the United States to visit Guantanamo since 2002. Three were invited last year, but refused to go in November after being told they could not interview detainees.

The Pentagon has acknowledged 10 cases of abuse since the detention began at Guantanamo, which was opened in 2002.

Lt. Col. Lora Tucker, the commander of the 305th, yesterday said the Guantanamo she saw on a recent five-day stay to prepare for the deployment was not the one summarized in the U.N. report.

"I've never been around a detention camp before, but I was amazed at the way that we are truly caring for the detainees," she said.

Because of religious reasons, the detainees get fresh bread made daily, she said.

"I walked through the medical facility and it's top of the line," Tucker said.

"I saw the way that the guards handled the detainees with respect as they transported them from one area to the other. It made me proud."

Tucker, 46, who has been in Hawai'i for a year and a half and worked for the chief of the Army Reserve in Washington, D.C., before that, said about six to eight journalists visit Guantanamo each week.

She said news videotape is screened before it is broadcast "because Cuba is such a sensitive area and there are some things operationally that they have to keep secure."

The deploying soldiers had to go through background checks and need "secret" clearance to work at the detention facility.

Sgt. Brian Gruspe, 28, an associate manager at Banana Republic in Waikiki, said the hardest part "is knowing that we're going to be on the rock. Of course, there's no access to Cuba. We have to keep busy on our off time."

The 45-square-mile base, leased in 1903 under terms that later required both countries' approval for termination, includes a series of camps.

The Hawai'i soldiers will be staying six to each air-conditioned hut at Camp America. There's a golf course on the base. And without access to other parts of Cuba, scuba diving, fishing and boating are popular pastimes.

John said he plans to pursue his juris doctorate degree in environmental law online in his free time.

"I plan on educating this," he said, tapping his head, "rather than (pursuing) recreation."

The soldiers are expected to be able to come home at least once, or maybe twice through the year.

Gruspe, who is married and heading out on his first deployment in 11 years in the Reserve, said his wife "feels OK now, but probably prior to the deployment, she'll feel more worried."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.