BANGOR – More than 100 members of the Maine Army National Guard, many based in Aroostook County, will be called to duty next month to assist with staffing and vehicle inspections along the U.S.-Canada border.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Tinkham II, Maine’s commissioner of defense, veterans and emergency management and adjutant general of the Maine Army and Air National Guard, announced the deployment Monday.

As part of Operation Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle, the guardsmen will help U.S. Customs, the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service protect Maine’s border. The National Guard support will allow higher security levels to be maintained by those federal agencies.

The Army National Guard’s role will involve inspecting vehicles, performing point-of-entry security checks and managing traffic and pedestrians at several locations along the border.

Maine shares a 611-mile border with Canada, much of it through forest, with only a 10-foot strip of cleared land and granite markers to indicate the location of the actual boundary line. There are about 20 land checkpoints in Maine along its borders with Quebec and New Brunswick, as well as others at airports and seaports.

Security along the U.S.-Canada border has been tightened since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. In some cases, the beefed-up security measures have caused significant delays for vehicles entering the country.

Most of the approximately 105 soldiers being mobilized as part of the border operation will be drawn from Bravo Battery, headquartered in Houlton, and Charlie Battery in Fort Kent and Presque Isle, according to Maj. Peter J. Rogers, deputy chief of staff for the Maine Army National Guard.

That’s because those units are closest to most border checkpoints, Rogers said Monday. In many cases, Guard members will be able to go home to their families upon completing their shifts along the border. Rogers said the soldiers will be placed on active duty for up to 180 days.

The deployment is scheduled to begin in early March.