AUGUSTA – As many as 130 members of the 152nd Maintenance Company will be called to duty at the end of January, Maine Army National Guard officials confirmed Wednesday.

The deployment order came last week, setting in motion a series of steps to prepare 120 to 130 of the unit’s 221 soldiers for an 18-month deployment.

“We don’t know exactly where they’re going,” said Maj. Pete Rogers, spokesman for the Maine Army National Guard. “What we do know is that their mobilization station will be Fort Bliss, Texas.”

The unit’s commander, Capt. Christopher Moody of Appleton, said the soldiers were placed on alert for six months in 2003, but they never received marching orders.

“We went through the whole process,” Moody said.

With detachments in Bangor and Limestone, the 152nd has members scattered throughout Maine, with most of them living between Bangor and Augusta, said Lt. Col. David Turner, commander of the 286th Quartermaster Battalion that oversees the 152nd and other Maine Guard companies.

They range in age from 18 to 58 and come from various professions, including physician assistants, bus drivers and teachers. About 30 of the members are full-time employees at Camp Keyes in Augusta.

The vehicle-repair specialists repair engines, transmissions, transfer cases and other mechanical parts from military supply systems throughout the world, Moody said.

“We work on basically anything in the military that runs,” he said.

Not all members of the 152nd will deploy at the end of January. Moody said several of the company’s younger members in basic training or specialty schools will stay behind to finish. Others will remain home because their jobs are not among those needed for the deployment.

The company also will draw mechanics from other guard units who specialize in wheeled vehicles and construction equipment.

Moody said the soldiers were relieved when the previous alert was lifted and they didn’t have to leave their families, but that there had been an underlying feeling of disappointment after all the preparation.