As the biggest Schofield Barracks deployment to Iraq ends, the Hawai'i-based commander of 23,000 soldiers in northern Iraq said the strain on the military needs to be addressed.

"We've got to take a look at the multiple rotations that we're requiring of our great soldiers and Marines in particular, but really the whole force," said Maj. Gen. Benjamin "Randy" Mixon by telephone yesterday from Forward Operating Base Speicher near Tikrit.

"We've got people that are now in their second and third rotation (to Iraq)," Mixon said. Deployment adjustments will have to be made, he added.

"We're going to have to increase the time people spend back home and reduce the amount of force over here — that's just the strategic reality."

Mixon said he couldn't be more proud of the effort made by 7,000 Island soldiers, as well as troops from other units, while the Iraqi government itself still has a long way to go.

The Schofield soldiers with Task Force Lightning in northern Iraq had a hand in training 19,608 police and 27,596 Iraqi army troops, the establishment of 52 police stations, and a 50 percent fuel production increase over the past 14 months in the oil-rich north.

"The soldiers have just been absolutely magnificent," said Mixon.

"I'm just amazed every day I go out with these soldiers by what they have accomplished. They have done everything that the nation has asked them to do and then some."

The rotations to Iraq continue, and the Hawai'i-based Stryker brigade is expected to leave next month for the Taji area just north of Baghdad and the desert region to the west.

Between 1,000 and 1,400 Schofield soldiers have returned home in recent weeks, with the pace of redeployment now picking up, and Mixon said he and his 25th Infantry Division staff will be among the last to arrive back in Hawai'i by the end of this month.

HOMECOMING TODAY

About 290 soldiers with the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which had its headquarters in Kirkuk, are due back this morning and will be reunited with families in a hangar at Wheeler Army Airfield.

Over the past 14 months, 41 Hawai'i soldiers gave their lives in Iraq. The task force as a whole experienced 195 deaths. In four major operations, 708 enemy fighters were killed, according to Schofield officials.

As commander of Multinational Division-North, a Pennsylvania-sized region north of Baghdad, Mixon had under his command the Schofield soldiers, as well as elements from the 1st Cavalry Division, 82nd Airborne Division and two Stryker brigades.

Mixon said the Iraqi army and police "improved dramatically" under the tutelage of the 3rd Brigade. Schofield soldiers reduced the number of bombings on oil pipelines in the Kirkuk area — weeding out some Iraqi security forces who were involved in pipeline interdictions — and production of all types of fuel is up.

The 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, meanwhile, which had about 100 helicopters from Hawai'i and additional choppers from other units, flew more than 30,000 missions and transported 5,555 tons of cargo and 148,000 passengers.

After 4 1/2 years of fighting in Iraq, Mixon, who also commands the 25th Infantry Division in Hawai'i, said the Iraqi army has made progress, and "I am optimistic, although cautiously so, that we'll continue to make progress."

The assessment comes as the U.S. House on Monday passed a bill co-written by U.S. Rep Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, that calls for defense officials to present to Congress regular status reports on plans for the withdrawal of combat forces in the unpopular war.

The bill does not include a withdrawal requirement.

Mixon said he believes the U.S. troop total, which recently peaked at about 172,000 and soon will return to 162,000, will have to be drawn down next year beyond the departure of 30,000 troops who were "surged" to Iraq.

Mixon also expressed frustration with the Baghdad government, which failed to meet some important benchmarks as a result of the improved security environment that the surge was intended to bring.

OBJECTS TO RESOLUTION

Mixon took issue with a non-binding U.S. Senate resolution calling for a decentralized, federal Iraq as a way to stem sectarian violence, saying, "For us to propose how this country over here ought to organize itself, to me seems like it's a little arrogant and counterproductive."

Mixon said Schofield's Stryker brigade, which is in California and has finished up nearly two months of training in preparation to go to Iraq next month, most likely will be operating in the area of Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad, and into the western desert.

"This is a support zone for the enemy," he said.

A decision still has to be made whether the 4,000-soldier Stryker brigade, which has about 328 armored Stryker vehicles, will be part of Multinational Division-Baghdad, or will be part of Multinational Division-North.

23,000 soldiers in Multinational Division-North, 7,000 of which were from Schofield Barracks

TASK FORCE LIGHTNING

MAJOR OPERATIONS

Snake Hunter, defeat roadside bomb planters, 476 enemy killed in action

Arrowhead Ripper, remove enemy forces from Baqubah, 110 enemy killed in action

Lightning Hammer I, pursued enemy forces in Diyala River Valley, 50 enemy killed in action

Lightning Hammer II, deny enemy safe havens, 72 enemy killed in action

IRAQI SECURITY FORCES