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DUANE BOURNEEight soldiers from Brooksville's 171st Aviation Regiment are among 650 Florida men and women activated for duty Thursday.
The Florida National Guard mobilized five units for active duty on Thursday, including some troops from the 171st Aviation Regiment's Company H in Brooksville.
State Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Ron Tittle said Thursday that eight soldiers were placed on active duty.
Those guardsmen, who fly the C-23 Sherpa aircraft, were processed with the 153rd Battalion in St. Augustine Thursday and returned home, where they are awaiting final mobilization orders. The lightweight cargo aircraft, used by the U.S. Army, carries up to 30 passengers, as well as equipment and supplies.
Troops from the 153rd Finance Battalion in St. Augustine, 50th Area Support Group in Homestead, 653rd Signal Company in Crestview and the 2nd Battalion, 265th Air Defense Artillery in Melbourne, Fort Pierce and West Palm Beach were also called to active duty Thursday.
Tittle said that the aviators from Brooksville and the additional four units could be sent to Fort Campbell, Ky., or Fort Stewart, Ga., in the coming days.
"Right now, I don't know for a fact that they will be around for Dec. 10," Tittle said.
"They just have been notified to be ready," he said. "We don't know if they are leaving before or after Christmas."
Thursday's mobilization comes nearly a month after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld unveiled a plan to replace the soldiers in Kuwait and Iraq with a fresh combat force of 85,000 soldiers.
Some personnel from the 171st Aviation Battalion Support Group and the 171st Aviation Company H, both based in Brooksville, have been on alert status since then. Many of the roughly 100 soldiers fly Black Hawk helicopters.
The latest mobilization activates more than 650 men and women.
- Duane Bourne can be reached at 352 754-6114. Send e-mail to dbourne@sptimes.com