Although certain details have yet to be worked out, one thing is clear: The Pennsylvania National Guard unit based in Hermitage will be going to Iraq and two local Army reserve companies will soon head off to duty stations to prepare for possible overseas deployment.

"They're going," Capt. Cory Angell, public affairs officer for the guard, said of the Hermitage unit. "The dates are kind of up in the air."

The 124-member Firing Battery A of the 107th Field Artillery of the 1st Battalion is based at the armory in Hermitage. An alert order was handed down last week and a mobilization order followed shortly afterward.

According to Jack Gordon, soldiers from the 635th Quartermaster Detachment and the 475th Quartermaster Group based at Pendel-Caminiti Reserve Center in Farrell both received mobilization orders, effective Dec. 7. Gordon, the 99th Regional Readiness Command's chief of information for public affairs in Pittsburgh, said the order affects about a dozen soldiers from the 635th and about 100 from the 475th.

030509