The Pentagon may alert Hawai'i Army National Guard soldiers that they should be ready to go to Iraq or Afghanistan in as early as a year, the head of the Hawai'i Guard said yesterday.

Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, who is also state adjutant general, said about 2,200 members of the 29th Brigade Combat Team conceivably could return to a war zone sometime late in 2008 or in 2009.

That would be less than three years after an identical number of Hawai'i Guard and Reserve soldiers returned from a one-year tour in Iraq that strained families and careers.

More than 1,000 soldiers from American Samoa, Guam and the Mainland also were part of the deployment.

Hawai'i is among eight states where National Guard units will be alerted for call-ups, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

Many members left the Hawai'i Guard after its war duty. Soldiers contacted yesterday said they had been hearing rumors of the new combat call-up.

Sharleen Acierto's husband, Glen, a Honolulu police officer and master sergeant in the Army Reserve, spent 2005 in Iraq and got back three months ago from another deployment there.

The Army Reserve's 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry falls under the National Guard's 29th Brigade and means that Reserve as well as Guard soldiers would be subject to a call-up.

"You know what? It's never easy. I don't care how many times you go there, it's never easy," Sharleen Acierto said. "I don't want him to go any more. It's been enough, but I know he has to. We talk about it, but it's hard."

Charles Neumann, 35, a National Guard soldier from 'Aina Haina, said, "That's our job and duty. If we get the call, we go."

But Neumann echoes others in the Hawai'i Guard and Reserves when he says the 2005 deployment to Iraq and Kuwait was extremely difficult for families. The combat duty was preceded by six months of training.

"I think we're still seeing some of those fragments (of problems) left over," Neumann said. There was less familiarity at the time with post traumatic stress disorder and the irritability that follows combat.

"There were a lot of separations and divorces," he said.

The National Guard Bureau goal had been five years between combat deployments. Until Lee got the latest deployment news two days ago, he had been under the belief that the Hawai'i Guard would be eligible for combat duty again in 2010.

"All that is out the window," Lee said, adding that an earlier deployment would be "too soon."

NEWS A SURPRISE

Lee said the news was a "little bit of a surprise because they had four (National Guard) brigade combat teams in the queue for 2008, and they've more than doubled that."

"I don't have better background than that," Lee added. "I'm due for a meeting with the secretary of the Army next week. I'll be present to try to figure out what gives here."

Lee said he "got some indications" in recent days from the National Guard Bureau staff that the alert will be coming.

He estimated the Hawai'i Guard has about 65 percent of its Humvees and trucks back from Iraq.

"I know we have a shortage of weapons," Lee said, adding that with the possible deployment, "We need all of that now."

On the needs list are night-vision goggles, crew-served weapons and new M-4 carbines.

Lee said many questions remain over training requirements because he doesn't know the mission. Train-up now is shorter, with a new policy limiting mobilizations — including training and deployment time — to one year.

"I need to find out what is really going on and what type of mission, what do we have to prepare for, for the 29th Brigade," Lee said.

The 29th Brigade Combat Team is augmented by the 1st Battalion, 158th Infantry Regiment of the Arizona National Guard, but that battalion of about 600 soldiers currently is serving in Afghanistan on the border with Pakistan.

Lee was asked at a news conference yesterday about previous talk of the brigade deploying to Bosnia.

"There were some earlier plans," Lee said. "As you can see, these future plans are constantly changing. ... I don't see Bosnia on the horizon (now)."

State Rep. K. Mark Takai, D-34th (Newtown, Waiau, Pearl City), a captain in the National Guard who commands the brigade's medical company, said, "I think from the standpoint of a legislator, we always expected that the 29th Brigade Combat Team would be mobilized once again — but all indications suggested that would be in 2010. Now learning through (the Associated Press) ... that it's 2008 is very difficult to comprehend. One wonders why this notice has to be delivered through the media instead of through appropriate military channels."

The U.S. military is reaching out to more Guard units in an effort to maintain needed troop levels, ease some of the strain on the active-duty Army and provide security for ports, convoys and other installations.

UNITS NOT NAMED YET

Specific brigades were not identified, but they will include units from North Carolina, Oklahoma, Illinois and Hawai'i, according to officials who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the orders had not yet been signed and the announcement is not expected until the end of this week.

In August, Lee told The Advertiser that the Hawai'i Army National Guard's 29th Brigade Combat Team was required to be in a "ready status" for possible combat duty again in 2010.

At the time, Lee cautioned, "That doesn't mean they'll deploy at that time, but that is the time that they've got to be ready for a possible call." He also said he had not received any calls about any possible acceleration of that schedule.

Some of the units being alerted this week have done tours in the war zone already, and others would be going for the first time.

According to defense officials, seven of the units would deploy to Iraq and one to Afghanistan.

Two of the units will be full combat brigades heading to Iraq — between next summer and into 2009, to serve as part of the rotation with active-duty troops. There are currently 20 combat brigades in Iraq, but under plans mapped out by President Bush and his top commanders, that number will gradually drop to 15 next year, as the U.S. reduces troops temporarily "surged" to Iraq to increase security in Baghdad.

NOTICE TO PREPARE

The announcement sometime this week will give Guard units advance notice of the planned deployment schedule so they can begin training and preparing. Also, because it looks far into the future, there is always the possibility that plans could change, based on conditions in Iraq.

There are now 171,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, largely because several units are overlapping as some move in and others move out of the country. Once those transitions are complete and the drawdown begins, the level of troops in Iraq could drop to as low as 135,000.

Some of the smaller Guard units would be stationed in Kuwait, where they would provide security for the port there, as well as convoys that move in and out of Iraq.

All together, the Guard announcement would involve about 20,000 soldiers.

A key element of the plan calls for sending the Guard brigades in fully intact units, complete with their own commanders and headquarters, rather than breaking them up and spreading them around, as has been done in Iraq in previous Guard deployments. Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard, has made that a priority, saying his brigades are more effective working as teams.

The new plan would have them spend several months training at home, then the remainder of the year at the battlefront.

As of this summer, more than 185,000 Guard members had served in either Iraq or Afghanistan over the past six years and more than 28,000 of them had been deployed more than once.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.