COLUMBIA--About 400 members of the South Carolina Air National Guard and their F-16CJs will head toward the Persian Gulf this week to support a potential war against Iraq, officials announced Tuesday.

"We have been given a mobilization and deployment order," said Lt. Col. Les Carroll, spokesman for the state's Air National Guard.

"We expect departure within and over the next week," Carroll said, speaking of the 169th Fighter Wing based at McEntire Air National Guard Station.

Carroll said the order covers the pilots, crews and others involved in flying and maintaining the approximately 18 fighters. "We refer to it as our aviation package," he said.

He added, however, that others are involved in the mobilization, including small groups of medical personnel and some with support roles such as cooks.

The unit's F-16CJs are specially armed with radar and heat-seeking missiles and are able to attack enemy surface-to-air missile sites and suppress enemy ground fire.

The unit last was deployed from January through April 2002, when it was based in Qatar in the Persian Gulf and flew missions over Afghanistan, Carroll said.

Members of the unit received their orders over the weekend and were gathering at McEntire near Columbia, said Lt. Col. Pete Brooks, spokesman for the South Carolina National Guard.