Air guard engineers notified for duty

8/7/2004

PORT CLINTON - An Ohio Air National Guard unit based at Camp Perry near here may soon be going on active duty.

No details about the possible deployment of the 200th "Red Horse" Engineering Squadron were available yesterday, other than that its personnel have "been notified that they should prepare for a possible upcoming mission," said Lt. Col. Carole Allan, executive officer of the 180th Fighter Wing at Toledo Express Airport.

"We're just waiting to hear more," Colonel Allan said. The 200th has about 200 members, she said.

Among those preparing for active duty is Air Guard Maj. Todd Audet, the district deputy director at the Ohio Department of Transportation's office in Bowling Green. Yesterday he handed ODOT's local reins to Mike Ligibel, the district planning administrator.

Major Audet last served overseas with the unit in 2002, overseeing the construction of Air Force facilities in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. In a June, 2003, interview upon his promotion to district deputy director, he said he expected to retire from the Air Guard next summer.

He declined to say yesterday whether his new call-up is with the Camp Perry-based unit or another, and said his tour will be of uncertain duration.

"You can obviously tell from recent deployments, nobody really knows for how long" their call-ups will last, the major said.