AUGUSTA — The reality of the crisis in the Middle East struck mid-Maine this week when a reserve unit of the Maine Army National Guard was called up.

Thirteen soldiers, including two women, mustered at Camp Keyes in Augusta Wednesday, most of them expressing surprise that their small, specialized group, the 3620th Transportation unit, was the first in the nation to be activated.

Capt. Peter Rogers, public affairs officer of the Guard, cautioned the news media not to use the soldiers’ last names or hometowns as a precautionary measure to deter terrorism. He said that the unit was prepared to depart Thursday morning for Fort Devens, Mass., but that its final destination was unknown.

But Iraq and the Middle East obviously were uppermost in the soldiers’ minds as they talked about saying goodbye to wives, children and parents over the weekend.

The unit leader said that despite the difficulty of leaving home ground, “I’m excited. I’ve been in the Guard for 19 years and this is the first opportunity to actively use our knowledge. We have a very young unit — mostly 18- and 19-year-old kids. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity for them. It was amazing how fast we could get moving once we were activated. We received notification on Friday and we are leaving Tuesday at 9 a.m.”

He said the attitude of the people on the home front has a lot to do with the attitude of the soldiers in his unit.

“There has been a tremendous amount of support both in and out of the military,” he said.

The unit leader, a schoolteacher and basketball coach in civilian life, said his family is “a little nervous” about his trading a classroom for the possibility of combat in the Mideast.

“The families have the hard part,” he said. “We have a great family support system through the military, however, and they really help.”

The unit, which specializes in movement control, the transportation of everything from food to ammunitions to toilets, is very small.

One of the two women in the unit, a first lieutenant, said she was “kind of nervous, but this is the first time we are really going to be able to do our job. That makes me very, very proud.”

Two of the youngest members of the unit won’t be returning to school this fall. One of them had planned to begin college, studying architecture.

“We’re still kind of stunned,” he said. “We haven’t really been told where we are going, even though we have received desert training and survival briefings. It is that uncertainty that keeps us on edge.”

Both young men said they were leaving “some real worried parents behind.”

One sergeant called himself “the old man of the unit. Most of these soldiers are younger than my son.”