LEWISTON – As many as 150 people from the Maine Army National Guard are being activated to help with the Hurricane Katrina cleanup in Louisiana.
Men and women from throughout Maine, members of the 133rd Engineer Battalion, are expected to be called over the weekend, Col. John Jensen said Friday.
They are expected to be gone for about a month.
Current plans call for the soldiers to join other engineer groups that are clearing roads and streets throughout the New Orleans area, said Jensen, who commands the battalion.
The call-up will affect about one-third of the battalion’s soldiers, some of whom are attached to armories in Lewiston and Norway. They are expected to spend the next week getting medical clearances and filling out paperwork. They could leave as early as Oct. 2.
For some, the work will interrupt a homecoming that still seems fresh.
In March, the unit returned home after spending almost a year in Iraq, constructing roads and buildings across the desert country’s northern third.
“We just got back,” Jensen said Friday.
However, some people seem eager for the call.
Though some Guard members will be ordered to duty, many will be volunteers.
Since Katrina hit in late August, about 40 people from the unit have volunteered to serve, even though no one asked. The demand was so great that clerks for the unit were forced to compile a list, said Jensen.
The official mobilization order arrived on Wednesday.
“We’ve always risen to the call,” the colonel said.
Although the mission and climate in New Orleans will be vastly different from that of Iraq, some of the lessons learned in the war will apply, Jensen said.
One big lesson will.
“Over there, we said flexible is way too rigid,'” Jensen said. “Everything is going to change. We know it.”
As the mission changes in New Orleans, the battalion will be ready, Jensen said.
One change is scheduled to happen even before they go.
Jensen is scheduled to leave his post next week for an administrative job at the Maine Guard’s headquarters in Augusta. A new commander, Col. Michael McLaughlin, will take over.
“I won’t be going with them (to New Orleans),” Jensen said. “I wish I was.”
Comments are no longer available on this story