About 160 soldiers from the Virginia Army National Guard's Powhatan-based 180th Engineer Company will leave Monday for eventual duty in Iraq.

The Guard will hold a 10 a.m. farewell ceremony Monday at Powhatan High School, 1800 Judes Ferry Road, to mark the start of the Virginians' mobilization for combat service.

After the ceremony, the unit will go to Fort McCoy, Wis., for final mobilization training and be there through late next month. The soldiers should arrive in Iraq in early December, the Guard said, and be stationed north of Baghdad on a 12-month tour.

The unit is trained and equipped to do road construction and repair, as well as force protection in its area of operations. During its deployment, the 180th is expected to handle those kinds of engineer missions, the state Guard said.

The company is headquartered in Powhatan, but soldiers from other parts of Virginia will be mobilizing for the mission.

The Guard said that about 25 of the 180th's soldiers come from the Richmond area, about 20 from Southwest Virginia, about 10 from Hampton Roads, about 10 from Northern Virginia, about five from the Shenandoah Valley and about five from the Lynchburg area. --Peter Bacqué