More than 500 Maine soldiers soon will be back on U.S. soil after spending more than a year in Iraq.

Members of the 133rd Engineer Battalion could return to Maine as soon as next week, according to Maj. Pete Rogers, Maine Army National Guard spokesman.

“By the end of the week, they should be back here at Fort Drum [New York],” Rogers said Tuesday, noting that no specific dates have been set for the soldiers’ return.

The battalion, which is composed of soldiers from all over the state and southern New Hampshire, will undergo a demobilization process at the New York base before coming to Maine. Demobilization, which includes medical and dental screening, filling out paperwork and cataloging equipment, usually takes about seven days, Rogers said.

“We’re discouraging family members from going to Fort Drum for a number of reasons,” Rogers said. The unit’s schedule isn’t definite, and military officials don’t want to keep the soldiers in New York any longer than necessary, he said.

“There is a potential that they may never see a family member,” he said. “It’s just best all the way around if [families] don’t go.”

Now in Kuwait awaiting flights home, the 133rd was the largest group of Maine troops deployed to combat since World War II.

“They completed more than 730 troop missions,” Rogers said. The soldiers provided humanitarian relief to some Iraqi citizens and constructed schools, health clinics and other facilities.

The unit has been recommended for the Meritorious Unit Commendation award by the commanding general for their work, according to a statement released Tuesday by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.

Collins, who is one of five U.S. senators visiting Iraq and Afghanistan this week, met with and told the 133rd soldiers they soon would be returning home.

“It was so special to be able to personally deliver this good news to our service members who have been serving in Iraq,” she said in the release. “They have served together bravely and with compassion for the Iraqi people, they have suffered devastating losses and they have saved lives.”

Three soldiers from the 133rd were killed and 35 were wounded while serving overseas.

Rogers anticipates the soldiers will be bused back to Maine from Fort Drum and that they will go to their respective armories around the state for individual homecoming celebrations. Those armories include the unit’s headquarters in Gardiner, as well as sites in Belfast, Portland, Westbrook and Lewiston.