LEWISTON – Jason Chaloux fears a year in the Middle East will feel like forever to his little girl.

He visits Alexia, who is almost 2.

They play. They talk.

Chaloux hopes she’ll remember him.

“That’s probably the hardest part for me right now, leaving her,” he said.

The details of the war and the uncertainty of his mission – still a question mark with more than a month until his July 1 reporting date – worry him less than the little girl.

She’ll likely see photos of her daddy, e-mailed from some faraway city. His parents will help. He may be able to call her sometimes.

At least he’s faced war duty before.

“Last time, I was married, and leaving my wife was hard,” he said.

In 2003, Chaloux, a guard at the Androscoggin County Jail, was called to duty and sent to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

He spent nine months drawing impassive stares from some of the men he guarded: Saudis, Iraqis and Afghans, detainees of the U.S. hunt for terrorists.

He returned on July 1, 2004 – exactly three years before his new departure date.

This time, he’s not sure where he’ll end up. It may not even be Iraq.

“We’ll be supporting Operation: Iraqi Freedom,” he said. That probably means Iraq. However, jobs need to be done in Kuwait and elsewhere.

To prepare, Chaloux is starting with himself. Working with his supervisor at the jail, he elected to use up the remainder of his vacation time. He stepped up his workouts to prepare for the furnace-like temperatures of summertime in the desert.

Returning soldiers have told stories of thermometers reaching 140 degrees.

“I do push-ups and sit-ups and run 2 to 2 miles a day,” he said. The running helps him get in shape. It also helps him handle stress.

A squad leader overseeing 10 men and one woman, he has responsibility for helping everyone get ready.

“They seem pretty prepared,” he said. “I haven’t seen anybody try to get a reason to get out of it, yet.”

Chaloux, a staff sergeant, found out in April that he’d be redeployed.

“I knew I’d probably be called up again,” he said. “It was just a matter of time.”

Though it was still unofficial, Maine National Guard leaders sent the 35 soldiers from the 169th Military Police Company through a checklist of health-related and legal steps.

They had physicals. Training was stepped up, though the unit could be doing anything from guarding prisoners to working on convoy security.

“I guess we won’t know until we actually get there,” Chaloux said.

The uncertainty demands a kind of poise, much like the kind he needs with his squad. Most have never served on active duty before.

“I’ve got to be steady-calm,” he said.”They’re pretty anxious to go. They call: ‘When are we leaving? When are we leaving?'”

The official activation order came down on May 18.

“On July 1, we belong to the Army,” Chaloux said. Plans call for the unit to spend Independence Day with families and leave for Fort Dix, N.J., on July 6.

His advice to his squad: “Calm down. Don’t worry. Don’t rush it.”

There is plenty to learn before they leave.

Officers have decided to send all 35 of the deploying soldiers through training to become “certified life-savers,” a kind of advanced first aid program covering such skills as making a splint and injecting a needle for an intravenous feed.

Chaloux hopes to get little practice.

His goal is to come back from the war with every member of his unit at his side.

And to get a hug from his little girl.