Two-thirds of the first jobs being moved to Aberdeen from Fort Monmouth this summer will be filled by volunteers transferring from New Jersey — defying expectations that few would follow their jobs when the base’s functions move to Maryland.

So far 221 people at Fort Monmouth have volunteered to be part of the “first wave” of 340 jobs transferring to Aberdeen Proving Ground in summer 2008, said Monmouth spokesman Henry Kearney.

Surveys of Monmouth employees in summer 2007 had indicated that less than 30 percent were willing to move to Maryland, and nearly half were set against it.

“There are so many different dynamics going into that decision for each individual employee — where your kids are in their school years, how close you are to retirement, where your spouse is working,” said George Mercer, spokesman for Aberdeen Proving Ground. “At the same time, I don’t think these [volunteer] numbers are surprising. People have known all along that the missions are being moved to Maryland.”

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Kearney said it was unclear if the larger share of volunteers in the first wave was due to successful marketing efforts by Maryland; programs at Monmouth to hire more young employees willing to move because they had ties to Maryland; or an anomaly that would not be repeated in the next wave of 600 jobs in 2009.

The federal Base Realignment and Closure process is shuttering the New Jersey base and moving nearly 10,000 jobs to Maryland. APG garrison commander Col. Jeffrey Weissman said the moves would happen in shifts.

Weissman said demolition would start soon for the $477 million first phase of construction of the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) campus; and would break ground in the spring.

“We need to start building up our capability and our capacity here in Aberdeen in preparation for the big move in 2011,” Weissman said this week.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com