Hawaii Guard units alerted to deploy

About 1,000 of the state’s citizen soldiers should be prepared to deploy to the Middle East and Europe, starting early next year, the Hawaii Army National Guard has been told.

If the mobilizations occur as planned, the combined deployments would be the biggest in a decade since close to 2,000 Hawaii Army Guard and Reserve soldiers deployed to Kuwait for convoy duty into Iraq in 2008-09.

“It’s possible that some of these units may not get mobilized,” Hawaii National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony said Thursday.

More than 2,000 Hawaii soldiers were told in the spring of 2011 they were on notice for a possible Afghanistan deployment, only to see the Army change its plans. About 140 of the Hawaii soldiers ended up going as part of Afghan security forces advise-and-assist teams.

The upcoming deployment plans represent a third of the Hawaii Army Guard’s total strength of about 3,100 soldiers, meaning a lot of families will be gearing up for potential mobilizations of a year and significant time away from loved ones.

Staff Sgt. Francis Agustin, 35, a 2001 Campbell High School graduate with the 227th Brigade Engineer Battalion, deployed to Iraq in 2004-05 with the Guard and to Kuwait in 2008-09. About 200 of the battalion’s 700 soldiers would be mobilized based on the plan, officials said.

“I actually signed up to serve my country. … I’m a little sad (to go) because I have a little 3-year-old and might be missing out, but technology now, you can always FaceTime, you can always see them,” Agustin said Thursday. He works full time for the Guard at its Kalaeloa location.

The first deployment was hard “because you don’t know what to expect,” Agustin said. The second deployment was easier, and “this third one could be a little easier than the second one.”

The unit call-ups would occur over about nine months, starting in the spring, the Guard said.

“Generically, the Army has a rotational model. We’re still operating within this rotational model, and so for the National Guard, we’re actually right at that time where we’re looking at another deployment,” said Lt. Col. James Fe’a-Fiame, executive officer of the 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

Fe’a-Fiame, who deployed to Afghanistan as an active-duty soldier with the 25th infantry Division and then went to Kuwait and Afghanistan on two separate National Guard deployments, said families will have a lot of questions, “and I think in due time prior to our actual mobilization, the leadership will be able to provide some of that information to our soldiers just to keep our family members informed and kind of ease that anxiety of deployment.”

Six units have received a “notification of sourcing,” including two aviation units from the 103rd Troop Command and elements from the 29th IBCT, the Hawaii National Guard said in a release Thursday. The units are:

>> Company B, 1st Battalion, 171st Aviation Regiment (CH-47 Chinook helicopter).

>> All detachments of 1st Battalion, 189th General Support Aviation Battalion (HH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, medical evacuation).

>> Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 29th IBCT (Brigade Staff).

>> 227th Brigade Engineer Battalion.

>> 1st Squadron, 299th Cavalry Regiment.

>> 1st Battalion, 487th Field Artillery.

The National Guard soldiers would head to about five countries under the plan, Anthony said. Where the soldiers will serve was not released, but the locations include the Middle East and Europe. Currently, about 10 soldiers with the Hawaii Army Guard’s 297th Firefighting Team are deployed to Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

The 1-171st Aviation deployed to Iraq in 2004 and Afghanistan in 2010 and 2013. The 1-189th Black Hawk medevac unit is new, and this will be its first deployment. The 29th IBCT deployed to Iraq in 2004 and Kuwait in 2008, the Guard said.

Exact dates, locations and missions have not been finalized, Anthony said. The notification of sourcing gives the Hawaii Army Guard time to plan and coordinate future training necessary for deployment. Soldiers from the affected units have been informing family and their civilian employers about the possibility of the upcoming deployment, he said.