LEWISTON – About 100 National Guard soldiers from the Lewiston and Norway armories are scheduled to join President Bush’s initiative to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

Road builders, welders, electricians and carpenters are slated to board a plane in Bangor next Wednesday and escape the last gusts of Maine’s lingering winter for the heat of Arizona.

“We’ll get on a plane and do what we do best,” said Lewiston’s Gary O’Connell, a platoon sergeant with Charlie Company of the 133rd Engineer Battalion.

Plans call for the unit to relieve a Belfast and Skowhegan-based group, the 133rd’s Alpha Company. That group arrived in the desert area on April 1.

The mission was announced last summer, shortly after Bush announced his border boosting plan, nicknamed “Operation Jump Start.”

Though the trip is not voluntary – only soldiers with extreme school or job conflicts were given excuses – most men and women are looking forward to the assignment, Staff Sgt. Jonathan Boubel said.

After all, one forecast calls for 81 degree temperatures on their arrival. The mission feels important, too, Boubel said.

“Morale is very high,” Boubel said. “Everybody is excited and eager to get there.”

The schedule calls for the unit to fly to Arizona next Wednesday. Thursday and Friday will be spent settling in and sitting through briefings. The real work begins on Saturday, April 21.

In the desert, Charlie Company will divide in half.

The road builders attached to the Lewiston armory will head into the Tohono O’odham Indian territory, south of Tombstone.

The Norway-based carpenters, electricians and other specialists – whom the Guard refers to as a “vertical unit” – are expected to work on the border wall near the town of Douglas.

Sgt. 1st Class Eric Richardson of Canton plans to head to Arizona this weekend to help organize the shift in work from Alpha to Charlie Company. He, too, plans to enjoy the change of scenery.

“I can’t imagine anyone not looking forward to it,” said Richardson, who was among the Maine Guard leaders to visit Arizona to prepare for the work.

Arizona wasn’t the first place the Maine soldiers offered their aid.

Immediately following the unveiling of the president’s plan, the Maine Guard called Texas.

Texas didn’t need their help, though. Units there dwarf Maine’s National Guard, officials here said.

State officials also contacted California and New Mexico but found the greatest need in Arizona.

To O’Connell, who has spent 29 years in the Maine Guard, the mission is similar to others. Prior to its Iraq deployment in 2004, the 133rd twice served similar border missions near San Diego, Calif.

“It’s old hat to us,” he said.

For Charlie Company, it also will be a kind of last hurrah. The unit is due to be disbanded in September.

Company members will be sent to other units. O’Connell is slated to become part of the 262nd Engineer Company in Westbrook.

“For the younger soldiers, it’s just another number,” he said. For old-timers like himself, It’ll mean more.

“When they roll up the flag, it will be a sad day for us,” he said.

133rd history

The 133rd Engineer Battalion served in Iraq for nearly one year, deploying in March 2004 and returning home in February 2005.