Approximately 160 Mississippi National Guard soldiers are headed to the Middle East for nearly a year.

The city of Pascagoula held a sendoff Saturday for the 859th Engineer Company. The unit is headed first to Fort Bliss, Texas, for training. After that, National Guard spokesman Daniel Szarek says, the unit will head to Kuwait for nine months.

The group includes plumbers, electricians and carpenters. It constructs and improves military buildings such as post offices amd recreation facilities.

The 859th is part of the 890th Engineer Battalion, based in Gulfport, but Szarek says it will deploy as a stand-alone unit, attached to part of the Kentucky National Guard when it arrives overseas.

It’s the company’s second deployment to the Middle East as a complete unit.