Two days after Christmas, 100 members of the U.S. Army Reserve's 377th Engineer Company based in Butler will ship out for a one-year deployment in Africa.

“We are heading to Africa,” said Sgt. First Class Jeremy Young. “Deploying at the holidays is a tough time. So families are really enduring a lot.”

The company operates out of the Army Reserve Center on Evans City Road in Butler Township, where they will board a bus bound for Pittsburgh International Airport on Sunday.

On the way, the unit will drive through downtown Butler in a send off procession led by Butler police and firefighters.

Half of the company's complement of 200 male and female reservists are being deployed. Company members live across Pennsylvania and some come from New Jersey, Maryland and Ohio, Young said.

The company's mission is vertical and horizontal construction. “We're jack of all trades kind of guys,” Young said.

He said the company's last overseas deployment was in 2006.