The clearance sale is in full swing. Not at the mall here after Christmas, but in Iraq.

With 1,700 Hawai'i National Guard and Reserve soldiers ending a one-year deployment and preparing to return home, much of what they've accumulated must go.

And that's a lot of stuff.

"The word is out at (Logistics Support Area) Anaconda — the Hawaiians are leaving," said 1st Sgt. Virgine Kanoa from Pu'unui by e-mail. So, now begins the frenzy to sell household goods acquired over the past year to the soldiers moving in, she said.

A year spent at a big base like Anaconda with well-stocked post exchanges and the desire to have some of the comforts of home means there's plenty to unload.

Kanoa, 46, a 29th Support Battalion soldier who works full-time for the unit back at Kalaeloa, said each soldier is allowed to fly with two duffel bags, a ruck sack and one carry-on bag.

Fliers advertising deals of the century get posted everywhere: at showers, latrines, on concrete blast walls.

Capt. Kyle Yonemura, a public affairs officer with the 29th Brigade Combat Team and HPD officer back home, was selling a 19-inch TV, DVD player, microwave, power transformer, radio, fan, hot pot, power cords, refrigerator and folding chair for the low, low price of $160.

"A $600 package deal for only $160!" his ad enticed. "This is not a gimmick — I just want to get rid of this stuff to redeploy."

Kanoa said "the aloha spirit lives" with many sellers offering free items to buyers, like bags of Kona coffee with the purchase of a coffee maker, and Spam and rice with a rice cooker.

Kanoa said she spent $800 when she arrived in February, and bought everything her departing counterpart had for sale.

"My trailer came stocked with transformers, cooking appliances, TV, DVD player, refrigerator, microwave, CD stereo, toaster, 10-cup rice cooker, satellite dish with seven months of paid service, cable box, stereo, rugs, utensils, canned goods, desk, entertainment center," Kanoa said.

Spc. Ramon Cardona, a Schofield Barracks soldier with the 84th Engineer Battalion who recently arrived at LSA Anaconda, picked up a TV, DVD player and microwave for $100.

Spc. Jayson Howell, 31, a soldier out of Seattle who volunteered for a second year in Iraq and was attached to the Hawai'i brigade, offered this selling advice: Get what you can for items, even if it's a low price.

"This isn't eBay," he said. " If you hold out, you may be able to get $10 more for your TV, but you may end up without a buyer and leaving it behind for free."

The buyers also are fellow soldiers. "Now's the time to help (them) out, not take advantage," Howell said.

Kanoa said quite a few soldiers have given away items. When the Army Reserve's 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry moved to "transition" housing of tents with wooden floors or wooden structures on concrete slabs, trash bins were overflowing with goods that were thrown out in a hurry to move.

Consequently, garbage-picking occurs on the 15-square-mile air base, 50 miles north of Baghdad, which houses a population of 22,000. Kanoa said she spotted a civilian worker rummaging through the trash bins picking out clothing, shoes, rugs and coffee makers.

Kanoa's battalion will begin the move in early January. Soldiers with the 100th Battalion already have started returning home, and all the 29th Brigade Combat Team soldiers are expected back by mid-January.

Kanoa said she isn't selling anything. Instead, she's donating everything to a group of civilian Filipino women who work at the laundry and beauty salon.

"They are the unsung heroes here," she said. "You don't read about them; they are underpaid, and they work hard in the background as laborers to make life a little better for us."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.