UI sophomore Bryan Kratz said he wasn’t surprised to receive a phone call last weekend notifying him he will likely need to serve in Afghanistan next year.

“I knew it was coming for a long time,” said the 20-year-old from Lawrence, Kan. “I enlisted during the war. It’s what I signed up to do, and I’ll go do it.”

Kratz’s possible deployment order is a part of the Iowa Army National Guard’s call-up for 3,500 troops from Iowa, who will be sent to Afghanistan next year to assist in ongoing mission efforts.

The recent call up of National Guard troops is the largest single mobilization of an Iowa National Guard outfit since World War II.

“The mission will be to assist and train the Afghan national-security forces, the Afghan national army, and national police,” said Major Michael Wunn, the public-affairs officer for the Iowa National Guard.

The entire 2nd Brigade of the 34th Infantry Division, a major command in Iowa, was notified by phone over the weekend of its new orders.

Of the brigade, roughly 130 Iowa City National Guard troops from Company B of the 1-133rd Infantry Battalion will be deployed.

For now, UI students who serve in the National Guard will not be affected this semester or in the spring, said John Mikelson, a former soldier in the Iowa Army National Guard and a veteran’s adviser at the UI Veterans Center.

While some like Kratz will leave the UI next year to serve, Mikelson said, he is unsure how the deployment orders will affect next fall’s enrollment.

The entire 2nd Brigade’s notification of deployment is a “number to alert,” Wunn said. Officials haven’t said how many troops they’ll need — but no more than 3,500 troops will be deployed, and it could possibly be fewer.

“It’s not unexpected to take the entire brigade as a team — that’s how they train,” Mikelson said.

Though the large call-up might worry some, officials said this is part of the normal rotation of forces to Afghanistan.

Roughly 450 Iowa Army National Guard troops are currently deployed overseas. Over the last eight years, officials have deployed nearly 12,000 Iowan soldiers and airmen to Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, and other locations in the Middle East, Wunn said.

Wunn said he expects the 2nd Brigade to be gone a year, because all units deployed since 2007 have come back in that time frame.

Other states are experiencing substantial calls of duty as well.

Illinois recently had a similar call-up, and on a larger scale, Iowa is about on par with active duty mobilization, Mikelson said.

The Iowa National Guard will now begin undergoing preparations for the possible deployment next year, Wunn said.

“Those most likely to go have a few months to get their personal affairs in order,” Mikelson added.

Troops will go through medical and dental checks, administrative processing to make sure papers and documents are in order, and training for the actual mission to serve in the combat theater, Wunn said.

“They’ll be training throughout the course of the year until they are mobilized,” Wunn said.