More than 7,000 active and Army Reserve and Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers will be departing next month for Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Friday, 4,600 soldiers from 25th Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team and its headquarters, led by Maj. Gen. Robert Caslen, will be honored at a deployment ceremony at Schofield Barracks Sills Field. This will be the 3rd Brigade's third wartime deployment since it was sent to Afghanistan in August 2004. It deployed to Iraq two years ago,

A few weeks later on Oct. 22, the 2,300 citizens soldiers belonging to the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and the Army Reserve's 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry, will hold its deployment ceremony at Fort Hood in Texas. It will be the brigade's second wartime deployment. In 2005, it was sent to Iraq. This time the brigade will be going to Kuwait, where it will provide a security force at various military installations as well as guard convoys moving from Kuwait to Baghdad.

  Army Brig. Gen. John M. Bednarek, former deputy operations commander for the 25th Infantry Division, has been selected for promotion to major general. Bednarek is commanding general of the 1st Army Division East at Fort Meade, Md.

  President Bush has signed into law a bill that will ensure veterans benefits are awarded to “;sole survivors”; in military families. Known as the Hubbard Act, the legislation was a response to the problems of a California Central Valley family that lost two of three sons in the Iraq war. One of sons - former 25th Infantry Division Spc. Jason Hubbard - was denied benefits because he was discharged too early. Jason Hubbard was flying in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter accompanying another Black Hawk that crashed, killing his brother, Nathan, and nine members of his platoon on Aug. 22, 2007, south of Kirkuk .

Both Jason and Nathan Hubbard, 21, were scouts with the 25th Infantry Division's 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry - nicknamed Cacti - and served in the same platoon. The two brothers joined the Army in August 2005, serving together following the path of their brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, who was killed by a roadside bomb in November 2004 near Ramadi.

After his brothers died in combat, Jason Hubbard left the Army under a military policy that allows sole surviving siblings to be discharged early, but the Army denied him any benefits after he left. The Associated Press said the new law applies retroactively to sole surviving members of families in which one or more siblings were killed or severely injured in the military. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, estimated that about 55 people will get retroactive benefits as a result of the law.

  Navy Region Hawaii's Federal Fire Department has won three major awards at the annual Department of Defense Fire and Emergency Services Awards banquet in Denver. Fire Chief Glenn De Laura accepted the 2007 Navy Fire Chief of the Year honors, making him the first federal fire chief to earn the title in Hawaii. Hawaii's federal fire department also was named 2007 Large Navy Fire Department of the Year and 2007 Navy Fire Prevention Program of the Year. As the top large fire department of the year, Hawaii beat 12 Navy regions last year. It recorded 11,359 responses, inspected 3,300 different facilities in 345 geographical locations for a total of about 48.5 million square feet, issued 3,430 work permits, hosted 760 public education seminars reaching more than 59,000 people, and participated in more than 25 different special events across services and installations.

MOVING UP

Pearl Harbor

» Cmdr. Steven Harris has assumed command of the nuclear submarine USS Los Angeles, relieving Cmdr. Erik Burian.

Hickam Air Force Base

» Lt. Col. James Golden has assumed command of the 65th Airlift Squadron, relieving Lt. Col. Robert Howe.

Camp Smith

» Air Force Brig. Gen. William W. Uhle Jr., assistant vice commander at 3rd Air Force at U.S. Air Forces in Europe at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to deputy director for strategic planning and policy for the Pacific Command.