LEWISTON – More than 100 part-time soldiers from across Androscoggin and Oxford counties are among the 500 Maine soldiers of the 133rd Engineer Battalion now in Iraq.

Company C, attached to armories in Lewiston and Norway, was among the units that arrived in Iraq in early March.

Since then, the group has spent most of its time on project reconnaissance, looking for the right job to go to work on, said Maj. Peter Rogers, director of public affairs for the Maine Army National Guard.

“They’ve done some minor projects, but they’re about to begin something big,” Rogers said.

The battalion also includes soldiers posted to armories in Skowhegan, Saco, Portland, Belfast, Westbrook, Augusta and Gardiner, which is its headquarters.

The local company was created to act as a moving construction company.

They can build roads, airfields and do other earthmoving projects. They can also build wood, metal and concrete structures and install the electrical wiring and plumbing systems.

They also have a combat mission, appropriate for a battalion that traces its history back to the 20th Maine, the Civil War unit headed by Joshua Chamberlain. They are trained to fire weapons and hunt for land mines.

The unit left Maine in January. It is scheduled to return home in the summer of 2005.