SALEM - More than 600 members of an Oregon Army National Guard infantry unit will be mobilized for the military campaign in Iraq, the largest single call-up of Guard troops since World War II.

The mobilization involves most of the members of the 2nd battalion of the Guard's 162nd infantry regiment, based in Cottage Grove, Guard officials said Monday.

They will receive their written orders within the next week or so, with mobilization likely in October, said Maj. Arnold Strong, spokesman for the Oregon Military Department.

Many of the infantry unit members live in Eugene, Corvallis, Newport and Coos Bay, Strong said.

Most members of the Coos Bay unit will be leaving, National Guard spokeswoman Kay Fristad said today. Once they return from their annual two-week training, they will go through pre-mobilization readiness and processing, she said.

Five members from the local unit were sent to Kuwait in February.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski, through a spokeswoman, expressed pride that the Defense Department had called up the Oregon unit to help the troops already in Iraq.

"But it's always a sorrowful day when members of the Oregon National Guard are deployed into harm's way," spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn said. "The governor said they will all be in our prayers, and he wishes them a speedy return."

About 1,400 Oregon Guard soldiers already are on deployment as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, the war on terrorism, including 630 who are based in Iraq or Kuwait, he said.

The latest 600 soldiers being called up will be sent to Iraq beginning in February 2004 after undergoing training at Army facilities at Fort Carson, Colo., or Fort Lewis, Wash.

The Oregon soldiers can expect a year-long stay in Iraq, Strong said.

Maj. Gen. Alexander Burgin, head of the Oregon National Guard, said the Defense Department's request for the Oregon unit shows that Oregon's troops are considered "among the best" in the country.

At the same time, Burgin said the Oregon soldiers face a dangerous mission in Iraq, where 108 soldiers have been killed since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.

"My hope is the theater will be more stable in the next six months," Burgin said.

"By that's exactly what they will be training for - how to contend with what the troops are seeing today."

- The World Staff Writer Susan Chambers contributed to this report