FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Three months after the 1165th Military Police Co. was off-ramped from a scheduled deployment to Iraq, the National Guard unit has been called up again.

The 170 troops of that unit headquartered at Fort Riel National Guard Armory in Fairhope learned last month that they would be deployed to Afghanistan in late December this year, said Sgt. 1st Class James Martin, the unit’s noncommissioned officer in charge.

“We will train for Afghanistan every month prior to leaving,” Martin stated Thursday. “We will deploy with 170 men.” Martin stated that approximately 145 of those National Guard troops live in Baldwin County.

“We will be home with our families for Christmas,” he said regarding the deployment schedule.

Late last summer, the unit was notified of a deployment to Iraq. But on Dec. 28, the unit learned that it had been off-ramped, and that the deployment would not occur as scheduled.

“This is the unit’s second tour,” Martin stated this week, adding that the unit’s mission during this deployment would be as a personal security detachment with maneuver and mobility support operations assignments.

The 1165th was deployed during the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom and received three citations for its service that year, including the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest award granted to military units that have performed an extremely meritorious or heroic act. The unit also received a Valorous Unit Award and a Meritorious Unit Commendation.

“(The 1165th is) the only company in the area that received the Presidential Citation,” Martin said earlier this year. “The citations were awarded for what the unit did during its deployment (in 2003-2004).”