PORTLAND (AP) – The deployment of an Army Reserve unit that was scheduled to return from the Middle East on Easter Sunday has been extended for 120 days.

The 94th Military Police Company, which spent nearly a year in Iraq before being moved to Kuwait about two weeks ago, was told it will spend the next three months escorting military convoys.

An official order extending the deployment of the company and two other units from southern New England by 120 days was announced Wednesday by the Army Reserve’s regional readiness command in Ayer, Mass.

The news was a blow to family members who are frustrated with the delayed return and angry that the unit, headquartered in Londonderry, N.H., seems to be getting unfair treatment.

“I’m irate. I’ve gone past crying and hysteria. Now I want answers,” said Nancy Durst of Buxton, whose husband Scott is a staff sergeant with the 94th, which has 40 members from Maine.

The 94th was deployed to Fort Polk, La., for four months before leaving for the Middle East. With an additional three months, the unit will have been activated for more than a year and a half, far longer than soldiers expected when they were first called up.

Prior to that, the unit spent nine months as part of a peacekeeping force in Bosnia.

The 94th, which has run police academies for Iraqis in Ramadi and worked in hot spots like Fallujah, was just a few hours from leaving for home from Kuwait when an Army colonel told them their departure was on hold. If they stayed, they would either be deployed in Kuwait or returned to Iraq, he said.

The news angered the soldiers, who felt that as a reserve unit they’ve done their duty, are tired and ready for home.

“We have been kicked in the gut so many times now with the six month extension this fall and then hours before we are to leave we get this,” Scott Durst wrote in an e-mail, saying the reservists have watched in frustration as active duty Army units get sent home while they stay on.

“We are tired and beat up and now they want to send us back . . . We were so lucky to get back without anyone being killed,” he said, adding that several of the unit’s soldiers were injured.

Some soldiers have been told they will remain in Kuwait, but others figure if they’re escorting convoys – which have come under increasing attack in recent weeks – they will probably be shepherding them into Iraq.

Nancy Durst said the unit’s morale is the lowest since the campaign started. The only point of optimism, she said, is that the military’s plans for the unit seem to change so often, they could change again.

Some other Maine families got welcome news Tuesday. After initially being delayed, the 1136th Transportation Company from Bangor, with 150 members, left Kuwait on Tuesday for Fort Drum, N.Y.

AP-ES-04-14-04 1817EDT