The first of Hawai'i's 2,200 citizen-soldiers who deployed to Iraq and Kuwait nearly a year ago are returning today to family hugs and a grateful state.

About 60 National Guard soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 487th Field Artillery and 15 soldiers with the 227th Engineer Company who were based in Kuwait will be reunited with family at about 2 p.m. at Schofield Barracks' Martinez Gym.

The field artillery soldiers are part of an advance party that will help about 350 other members of the unit expected back home in early December through the transition back to civilian life.

Today's return represents the first wave of returnees from the largest deployment of Hawai'i National Guard and Reserve soldiers since the Vietnam War.

"This is a day all of us in Hawai'i have been looking forward to since these brave men and women were deployed," Gov. Linda Lingle, who is in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.

Hawai'i units such as the Guard's 2nd Battalion, 299th Infantry at Camp Victory in Baghdad; the 29th Support Battalion at Logistical Support Area Anaconda; and the Reserve's 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry, also at LSA Anaconda, continue to face mortar, roadside bomb and small-arms attacks. The units are expected to remain in Iraq for the Dec. 15 elections, and return to Hawai'i in January.

The soldiers were mobilized in August 2004. Sixteen soldiers with the 29th Brigade have been killed in Iraq, and about 100 have been wounded. Sgt. Deyson Cariaga, 20, of Kalihi is the brigade's only Hawai'i fatality.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.