TOPSHAM – Fifty-five U.S. Marine reservists will soon be leaving Maine for a yearlong deployment that will include seven months in Iraq, military officials said Thursday.

Soldiers from Company A, 1st Battalion of the 25th Marine Regiment, based in Topsham, are scheduled to leave the Topsham Reserve Center on Jan. 3 to go to Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts.

The soldiers will go through three months of combat and counterinsurgency training in California before being sent to Iraq, where they will spend approximately seven months.

The 1st Battalion 25th Marines is primarily a cold-weather infantry unit. It has companies in Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Other Maine soldiers are also leaving soon for Iraq.

About 170 members of the Maine Army National Guard are scheduled to leave for Fort Dix, N.J., in early January for an 18-month mobilization. They will be heading to Iraq for security duties.