By Alabama Public Radio
Montgomery, AL – Federal defense officials have activated another 15-hundred Alabama National Guard members. The call up affects six units, and some soldiers will go on active duty within a matter of days. Members of the 115th Signal Battalion, based in Florence, and the Wetumpka-based 1206th and 1209th Quartermaster detachments will report this weekend. Members of the 711th Signal Battalion in Mobile, Company F of the Birmingham-based 131st Aviation Regiment, and the Prattville-based 231st Military Police Battalion will go on active duty January first. Alabama Guard spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Bob Horton says the call up is part of a second wave of Alabama National Guard units assigned to the Persian Gulf since the September 11th terrorist attacks. The units will serve up to a year in the Gulf, but military officials did not immediately know when the units would depart.