LOCAL GUARDSMEN CALLED TO ACTIVE DUTY.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Sixty-some National Guardsmen from a local tank unit have been called up for active Army duty and the likelihood they will be sent to Iraq.

The soldiers, a company in the San Bernardino-based 185th Armor Regiment's 1st Battalion, are expected to begin training Nov. 15 at the Palmdale armory, then ship out after Thanksgiving for Fort Lewis in Washington.

``Everyone's assuming Iraq and that is very likely. I don't know that as a fact,'' said Company B commander James Westerfield, who in civilian life is a Santa Clarita resident and salesman for Rockwell Automation.

The mobilization order comes as the Pentagon is making plans to rotate home combat units that have been in Iraq for months. American and British forces overran Iraq within weeks, but bombs and attacks on soldiers are still killing Americans - like the 22 who died last week in the downings of two helicopters.

If mobilized, the guardsmen can expect to stay in Iraq for 12 months, officials said. The mobilization order says the unit could also be used in Iraq, Afghanistan or even stay in the United States.

The tank battalion is the first combat National Guard unit from California to be alerted for duty in Iraq, though transportation, military police and other support units are already there and a California guardsman was killed by a bomb in August.

This is the first combat National Guard unit from California to be sent out since the Korean War, Westerfield said.

Westerfield said his men are ready to go to Iraq, though there is some tension involving families.

``The thing is, we are a combat arms unit. They guys who volunteer for a combat arms unit are special. The reason we went in the military is to serve our country,'' said Westerfield, a Gulf War veteran. ``We volunteered for this stuff.''

After they were alerted Oct. 1 they could be mobilized, the soldiers spent four days last month at the National Guard's Camp Roberts near San Luis Obispo checking medical records and pay records and filling out legal papers.

About 600 California guardsmen are affected by the mobilization, which in all covers about 4,000 guardsmen in California, Washington and Minnesota who are part of the Washington-based 81st Armor Brigade.

The unit is expected to train at the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin north of Barstow early next year and then be sent to Iraq, said a spokesman in Washington.

Among the California National Guard units already in Iraq is the 756th Transportation Co., a trucking unit based at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds. The unit was among those recently notified that it could be kept in Iraq until next summer.

The guardsmen have had to fit their trucks with machine guns for protection against ambushes as they travel Iraqi roads, a California guard spokesman said.