About 125 soldiers with the Hawai'i Army National Guard will return home today from deployment to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

A short ceremony is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Guard's "Rainbow" hangar at Kalaeloa. Following that, the soldiers will be reunited with their families and friends.

The soldiers have been mobilized on active duty for the past year.

Many of the soldiers in the group opted to stay behind in Kuwait and support the next brigade when the Hawai'i-based 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team returned from Kuwait and Iraq in August 2009.

There also is a contingent of soldiers who did not deploy with the 29th Brigade and are from various units within the Hawai'i Army National Guard, but who also volunteered to mobilize with the 29th's replacement, Wyoming National Guard's 115th Fires Brigade.

The 115th Brigade and the 29th Brigade shared the same missions, including security and administration of several military posts and also escorting convoys into and out of Iraq.