Hawaii National Guard soldiers headed soon to Afghanistan

More than 300 Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 487th Field Artillery will attend a deployment ceremony Sunday ahead of upcoming duty in Afghanistan, officials said.

During the ninth-month deployment the 1-487th will be supporting U.S. forces as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

This is the third time that the unit will be deployed, including Kuwait/Iraq in 2004 and Kuwait/Iraq in 2008. The 1-487th soldiers will train in Texas for about three months before heading to Afghanistan.