KALAELOA — The march back to a combat zone has officially begun for the citizen soldiers of the Hawai'i Army National Guard, who say a deployment in 2005 has made them much better prepared for a Kuwait and Iraq mission ahead.

About 1,200 soldiers with the 29th Brigade Combat Team left their regular jobs and school and began training full time on June 14 for the Middle East duty that will begin in October.

This is the second combat deployment for the 29th Brigade since the Vietnam War — the first was a nearly year-long deployment to Iraq and Kuwait three years ago.

This time, the 29th brigade will have management and security responsibilities in Kuwait, but approximately 1,000 Hawai'i soldiers will take turns driving into Iraq in armored Humvees and even more heavily armored "Mine Resistant Ambush Protected" vehicles, or MRAPs, on convoy security missions as far north as Mosul.

The escort missions will be made by groups of about 40 soldiers per convoy.

On Friday at the National Guard hangar at Kalaeloa, soldiers practiced in a trainer that simulates a rollover and convoy driving in the nearly 6-ton Humvees.

Sgt. Matthew Kakazu, 26, had to stay in the Guard to keep his job with the soldiers as a federal technician, and as a result, he's deploying to Kuwait. He went to Iraq in 2005 with a helicopter unit.

"I'm all right with it," the Kapolei man said of the upcoming deployment. "My family knows this is the choice I've made."

He passed through Kuwait before, and he said he's curious to see what it looks like since he left.

"I hope they made it a little nicer," Kakazu said of Camp Buehring, a military facility in Kuwait. "It's not a bad place, but everything is so far apart, and (we were) living in tents. It gets to you a little after awhile."

The training here still is under state control, with a doubling of the typical two weeks of annual training that Guard members receive. Mobilization for federal duty is expected in mid-August.

ANTICIPATING A BREAK

Most of the soldiers will get a break before that, from about July 2 until the end of the month.

From Hawai'i, the soldiers will head to Fort Hood, Texas, for two months of larger-unit exercises before going straight to Kuwait and overseas duty that's expected to last about nine months.

Col. Bruce Oliveira, the brigade's commander, said more than 80 percent of the deploying soldiers are veterans of the last deployment.

That's provided a lot of reassurance to commanders and deploying soldiers alike.

"They are very familiar with the mission," Oliveira said. "They've done missions similar to this. Most of the brigade will be in Kuwait this time. They are going to be protecting staging bases, and that's the same thing (as in Iraq). They were at forward operating bases in Iraq, and now, they are at staging bases in Kuwait."

DESTINATION KUWAIT

Of the approximately 2,300 Hawai'i soldiers who deployed in 2005, about 1,800 operated in Iraq and another 500 were based in Kuwait. On the upcoming deployment, all are expected to be based out of Kuwait.

About 500 soldiers with the Army Reserve's 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry, also will be going to Kuwait as part of the 29th Brigade Combat Team.

Lt. Col. Mike Peeters, the 100th commander, said his soldiers are on a slightly different schedule, with training planned from July 18 through Aug. 12 at Fort Hunter Liggett in central California, an Army Reserve post with more than 165,000 acres.

A big send-off for all the troops is planned at Aloha Stadium in mid-August, and then all 1,700 will leave for Fort Hood.

Peeters said he, too, sees more confidence after the previous Iraq deployment.

"There's a whole different feel to the deployment this time," Peeters said. "Kind of more of a business feel, where the expectation isn't so much, 'What are we going to be doing?' It's, 'OK, whatever we're doing, we're ready to go.' "

On Friday, Hawai'i National Guard soldiers took turns getting tumbled in a Humvee rollover trainer that required five soldiers to exit a single door after getting flipped upside down.

According to Army statistics, there have been 10 Humvee rollovers since October 2006 resulting in injury or death. In Iraq, narrow canal roads with steep banks are particularly dangerous for the relatively wide vehicles.

Sgt. 1st Class Johnny Miyagishima rotated one Humvee 25 degrees, then 30, then 180 degrees as a loudspeaker broadcast what was going on inside.

"You are taking fire. You need to hurry up and get out of this vehicle," Miyagishima said to the Humvee crew.

There were a lot of "whoahs!" and grunts and some laughs as the soldiers unbuckled their seat belts and tried to untangle themselves.

"My first time. I was kind of dizzy. Not used to being upside down, but pretty good training," said Spc. Justin Fuentes, 25, from Waipahu, who deployed to Iraq last time.

SOME GO AS COUPLES

The soldiers training on Friday were with Company B, Brigade Support Battalion.

Spc. Cherry Roldan-Gador, 27, who lives in Kapolei, said she's been a member of the Hawai'i Guard since 2002, and she also deployed to Iraq previously.

Like Kakazu, she works as a federal technician with the Guard and would lose her job if she got out. Her husband also is in the Guard, and he's going to Kuwait, too, but she's not sure if they will be at the same base.

"It's still hard being away from your family," she said, "but it's something we have to do."

Pfc. Isaac Aspera is one of the soldiers relatively new to the Guard who will be deploying to a combat zone for the first time. He joined in late 2006.

"I was getting into a lot of trouble and thought maybe the military might straighten me out, which it has," said Aspera, 25, who is married with a 16-month-old son.

Oliveira, the brigade commander, said the 29th Brigade will be at camps Buehring, Virginia and Arifjan, as well as Kuwait Naval Base and Ali Al Salem air base.

About 200 soldiers from the 45th Fires Brigade, from Oklahoma, also will be under Oliveira's command.

About 1,000 Hawai'i National Guard and Reserve soldiers will have convoy escort duty that will take them into Iraq and back for short trips over the border and longer missions as far as Mosul in the north, Oliveira said.

As such, the soldiers will face the danger of roadside bombs in and around Baghdad and regions to the north.

Eighteen soldiers with the 29th Brigade Combat Team were killed in Iraq on the 2005 deployment. Most were from a California battalion that was attached to the 29th Brigade.

Two soldiers from Saipan and one from American Samoa who were killed were with the 100th Battalion. Sgt. Deyson Cariaga was the only Hawai'i citizen-soldier to lose his life in Iraq.

The Reserve's 100th Battalion and Guard's 1st Squadron, 299th Cavalry Regiment will perform the Iraq convoy escort duties in platoon-size elements, Oliveira said.

This deployment will be smaller than in 2005. At that time, about 3,700 soldiers were sent to Iraq and Kuwait, with about 2,300 coming from Hawai'i.

This time, the mission called for about 1,700 from the 29th Brigade, and Oliveira said between 300 and 500 other soldiers with the brigade aren't making the trip because they aren't needed for the mission.

He acknowledges the challenges that came to family life with the past deployment and said changes have been made.

Oliveira said he has an assistant who now works full time on family readiness group issues. Marriage "enrichment" counseling and weekend retreats are now scheduled before the deployment, and counseling planned during the time away, instead of the assistance just being provided afterwards, he said.

"It was very challenging, and will continue to be challenging," Oliveira said of the deployments. "We have learned lessons from that first deployment, and we're trying to do things to make it a little bit easier, but that separation is going to be there."