About 4,500 Schofield Barracks soldiers yesterday received confirmation of what they've already been training for: a return trip to Iraq in the fall, probably in October.

The Pentagon announced that the 25th Infantry Division headquarters and 3rd Brigade are among a group of 25,000 active duty soldiers that will be part of the next rotation into Iraq.

The new rotation is expected to maintain 15 combat brigades and about 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq into the next presidency.

The 3rd Brigade, with about 3,500 soldiers, and the division headquarters, with 1,000 soldiers, returned from Iraq in October 2007 after a 15-month tour.

Officials previously said the Hawai'i units likely would return to the same operating area: Multinational Division North, the region north of Baghdad.

About 2,500 other Schofield soldiers with the aviation brigade also are expected to receive orders for a return to Iraq, possibly early in 2009.

The deployments, along with others, will continue the record levels of Hawai'i soldiers — more than 7,000 —that were in Iraq in 2006-2007, and perhaps exceed that if there is overlap with the current deployment of Hawai'i's Stryker brigade.

The Stryker brigade and its 4,000 soldiers have been operating in the north Baghdad, Taji and Tarmiya areas since late 2007, and are expected to be in Iraq for 15 months until early 2009.

The 3rd Brigade will be in Iraq for a year.

Additionally, the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment of 1,000 Marines is expected to leave for western Iraq in August on a seven-month tour, and about 2,000 Hawai'i National Guard and Reserve soldiers are slated to deploy to Kuwait in late October and in November.

Altogether, 14,000 Hawai'i troops will be leaving for or returning from Iraq and Kuwait late this year and early next year.

The 3rd Brigade at Schofield already has started training for the new deployment, and elements currently are rotating through Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island.

Families repeatedly have complained that a year at home between combat duty is not enough because the first six months are spent unwinding from the stress of separation and war, and the next six months marks the start of stepped-up training for the next deployment.

Maj. Tage Rainsford, a Schofield spokesman, said groups of soldiers are being sent over to the Big Island for several weeks of training — rather than longer periods of time — and then return home.

"What all the commanders are trying to do is maximize the amount of time soldiers are home, while still doing the training they need for when they deploy," Rainsford said.

The entire 3rd Brigade is expected to head to the National Training Center in California in July for four to six weeks of training.