About 150 soldiers from American Samoa have been put on alert that they could be deployed to Kuwait.
The alert order is for a unit which also includes army reservists from Hawaii, Guam and Saipan.
The unit expects to deploy to Kuwait in about half a year to provide security for US installations.
One senior member of the Bravo company in American Samoa said they had expected an alert order to be issued but they thought it would not come before Christmas.