DECATUR - It's back to Iraq for the 106th.

About 150 members of the Illinois Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation will begin a yearlong deployment early next year that will include about 10 months in Iraq.

Lt. Dutch Grove of the Guard's public affairs office said the soldiers, including members of Decatur-based Alpha and Delta companies, will begin their deployments in late February or early March.

Members of the battalion's headquarters company, based in Peoria, also will be deployed at that time.

The soldiers will bring along with them an undetermined number of their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.

Grove said the soldiers initially will spend about two or three months training at a stateside military base or mobilization station before heading for Iraq.

"From the date they hit the mobe station, one year from that date they will be back home and released," Grove said.

Grove said there will be an emphasis on combat training, along with training on "cultural awareness to let the troops know how best to interact with local people."

For some members of the 106th, this will be their second Iraq tour.

About 230 soldiers from the 106th served 11 months there four years ago, completing their deployments in February 2005.

During that tour, three flight companies, including Decatur-based Alpha Company, conducted numerous air assault missions, among many other duties, logging 17,400 flight hours -(almost two years in the air. Decatur-based Delta Company, the maintenance unit, worked around the clock to keep 44 helicopters in the air.

There were no fatalities, but Capt. Ladda "Tammy" Duckworth, a pilot with a Chicago-based flight company, lost one leg and part of another when a grenade exploded in her cockpit. She is now director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs.

The 150 members of the 106th who are deployed in Kosovo on a peacekeeping mission will not be sent to Iraq, Grove said. They are scheduled to return home in May. The soldiers in Kosovo include some Decatur-based service personnel, about half the members of Delta Company. No members of Alpha Company have been deployed to Kosovo.

Capt. Jim Smith, 28, a pilot who plans to deploy to Iraq next year, said the 106th has completed many missions in the past few years. They include a humanitarian trip to El Salvador, border patrol duties in Arizona and missions to the Gulf Coast to help victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav.

Sgt. Daniel Wentworth, 23, a full-time National Guardsman, missed the previous Iraq deployment of the 106th, but his older brother, Jason, participated. This time, he will be going, along with all of Alpha Company, while his brother stays behind to attend flight school.

When asked if he considers a deployment to Iraq a sacrifice, Wentworth said, "It's a big personal sacrifice, for my personal life, but I think it's necessary."

hfreeman@herald-review.com|421-6985