The Winnipeg-based 38 Canadian Brigade Group is expected to announce Wednesday what could be one of the most concentrated reserve deployments from Western Canada in recent history.

Reserve units from Thunder Bay to Vancouver will fill the ranks of next year's rotation to southern Afghanistan.

While regular forces are leading the charge through the Second Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, reservists have been training in Winnipeg as an armoured troop led by the Fort Garry Horse armoured reconnaissance unit.

As part of an armoured convoy escort troop, they will accompany people and goods outside the security of a military base.

Amy Franck, a gunner with seven years of reservist training, said her parents are worried about her safety, but she knows this is what she wants to do.

"I would like to make a difference, however small it is," she told CBC News.  "I just always wanted to go. My grandfather was in the army, and I really like the stories, and I just want to be a part of it."

About 160 reservists from six units across Western Canada are expected to join the Second Battalion PPCLI in Shilo for full-time training in the late spring.

The 38 Canadian Brigade Group, headquartered in Winnipeg, is co-ordinating the reserve deployment for Western Canada.

Co-ordination a big job

Capt. Cameron White, a staff officer with the group, acknowledged getting troops from Thunder Bay to Vancouver together for the training isn't easy.

"Co-ordinating training on evenings and weekends and getting all these people from across Western Canada together to do the training poses significant challenges, but we've worked through that," he said.

Capt. Chris Lunney said it's essential for the reservists to become solid at basic soldiering before they take on mission-specific training.

"Our individual soldiers on a street corner, they make life-and-death decisions, and they do it with the utmost training," he said.

The mission in Afghanistan requires nearly 2,500 fresh troops every six months.

Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie said that by February 2009, almost every soldier in the regular army as well as 20 per cent of the reserve force will have gone through combat.

The Canadian Forces is looking to offer full-time soldiering jobs to as many as 1,500 part-time troops in order to keep the army prepared to fight.