The mobilization order came a couple days ago, but officials delayed a public announcement in order to notify soldiers and their families and clarify the details, the brigade commander, Col. Ronald Kapral, said Wed-nesday.

The order comes as no surprise. The Department of Defense placed the 3,800-soldier brigade on alert last October.

“I think it brings a sense of reality,” Kapral said. “When the unit is put on alert there’s always that possibility that things could change.

“Now there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind. The brigade needs to get ready. The brigade needs to mobilize on this certain date.”

The 81st – with about 2,900 soldiers from Washington and 900 from California – went to Iraq in March 2004 and returned home in March 2005. It was the largest Washington Guard deployment since World War II.

This time, soldiers will go to their annual monthlong training exercise at Yakima Training Center in July, then on to mobilization at Fort McCoy, Wis., in mid-August. After that, they’ll go to Kuwait for a last round of training before heading north into Iraq.

Officials declined to go into specifics of the brigade’s mission but said generally the soldiers will protect convoy routes and forward operating bases.

It’s similar to the mission the brigade performed in Baghdad and Balad, north of the capital, on its last tour.

Under the Pentagon’s current policies for guard and reserve call-ups, the brigade would spend no more than 12 months on active duty.

That would see the unit home from deployment sometime in August 2009.

Michael Gilbert: 253-597-8921