The 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment will be part of a previously announced Hawai'i Army National Guard deployment to Kuwait in late 2008, officials said yesterday.

In October, when news of the alert for the National Guard was first announced, officials spoke of the Army Reserve's "Go For Broke" battalion being part of the deployment, but there was no official notice.

The alert, issued Thursday by the Department of the Army, made it official.

About 500 Reserve soldiers with the 100th in Hawai'i, American Samoa, Guam and Saipan will be mobilized for a year in the late summer or fall with about 1,500 National Guard soldiers.

Some family members of 100th Battalion soldiers were hoping the group would not be deployed.

"I think anybody who has a soldier always will hope that there's a glimmer of 'Oh, good, their name wasn't on the list,' " said Pam Lau, whose 25-year-old son, Staff Sgt. Keenan Lau, is subject to the call-up.

Almost all had expected the call, though.

"I think all of us have kind of known about it," said Carylynd Ala, whose husband, Ionatana "John" Ala, still is recovering from a roadside bomb blast from a 2005 deployment to Iraq, and won't be part of the new deployment.

When the Hawai'i National Guard's 29th Brigade Combat Team is called up for war duty, it's usually with the 100th Battalion. That was true for an activation during the Vietnam War as well as the 2005 Iraq deployment, said Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, the state adjutant and head of the Hawai'i National Guard.

The Pentagon in October announced that eight National Guard brigades would be deploying to war zones. The 29th Brigade Combat Team drew the Kuwait mission, while the others are expected to go to Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Hawai'i soldiers will have responsibility for security and management of U.S. bases and troop training in Kuwait, which is used as a port to receive combat equipment and is the primary route into and out of Iraq.

The Kuwait mission means that the soldiers will be safer than if they were in Iraq. But the National Guard Bureau goal had been five years between combat deployments, and a December deployment would mean the citizen soldiers will have had just under three years.

Lt. Col. Mike Peeters, who commands the 100th Battalion, said the alert came as no surprise and he has been "parallel planning" what the National Guard has been doing for the Kuwait deployment.

Peeters said plans are subject to change, but some soldiers are expected to conduct convoy security missions throughout Iraq from Kuwait.

"I don't think anybody knows the details of that yet," Peeters said.

The 29th Brigade Combat Team soldiers were expected to be mobilized next June, and leave for Kuwait in September or October. But that has been pushed back, and the soldiers now are expected to head to Kuwait in late November or in December.

A new national policy limits mobilizations to a year, unlike the 19 months of active duty the Hawai'i soldiers endured when they were mobilized in 2004 for Iraq.

The Ohio National Guard's 37th brigade is expected to be the first unit to have security, management and training responsibilities for all of Kuwait. Those soldiers are expected to soon be mobilized, and that will start their year-long clock ticking. Hawai'i's 29th Brigade Combat Team will assume the Kuwait responsibilities from the Ohio brigade.

The 100th call-up alert includes Headquarters and Headquarters Company on O'ahu and in Hilo; Bravo and Charlie Companies in American Samoa; Delta Company on O'ahu; and Echo Company in Guam and Saipan.

The 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment, the only infantry unit of its kind in the Army Reserves, was the most decorated unit for its size and length of duty during World War II, and is known as the "Purple Heart battalion."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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