BANGOR – Nine members of a Maine Army National Guard unit based in Bangor have received orders to deploy to Bosnia, a Guard official announced Wednesday.

The nine members of Company E of the 120th Air Traffic Control Group will deploy to Tuzla, Bosnia, in early August and are scheduled to return in April 2003, according to Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Tinkham III, commissioner, Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management and adjutant general of the Maine National Guard.

The group will operate in support of Sustainment Force 12, conducting air traffic services to include ground and air traffic control. The members of the Maine unit will join a number of military forces already positioned in Bosnia.

The mission is not unusual. In 1999 the unit deployed 15 members to Kuwait in support of Operation Southern Watch.

After conducting final checks and mission-specific training at Fort Benning, Ga., the unit will travel to Germany and then to Bosnia.