Don and Nissa Kleitz will be leaving for Iraq in a few days.

Deployment of their heavy equipment transportation unit means the Omaha couple will be separated for a year from 8½-month-old “Little Don” and 4-year-old daughter Aubrey.

When soldiers are deployed, sometimes grandparents also serve.  The kids will stay with Nissa’s mom and dad

“I’m going to miss my kids,” said the bigger Don as he prepared to walk into a huge sendoff ceremony Sunday for 300 Army Reserve troops.

Several thousand family members, friends and well-wishers crowded into the Lancaster Event Center for a flag-waving bon voyage and family barbecue.

“Git-R-Done” signs dotted the walls, and the ceremony was punctuated by the cries and shouts of children.

“I don’t really know what to say right now,” said Nissa as she cradled Little Don in her arms.

“I’m nervous,” she said.

Nissa, 25, is a truck driver with the 443rd Transportation Company.  Don, 23, is assigned to maintenance duty.

The pair is one of six married couples who will be making the journey to Iraq.

One couple was remarried in Lincoln on Saturday. Valentine’s Day.

This will be Don’s second deployment. He was in Kuwait and Iraq in 2004-2005.

More than half of the soldiers assigned to the unit have been deployed before.

Although the majority of troops hail from Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa, this deployment includes soldiers from 16 additional states.

As you spend “10 to 12 hours on that dusty road from Kuwait to Baghdad,” Col. Arlan Deblicek told the troops, “you will sometimes ask: ‘Why in the heck am I doing this?’”

For you and your family, he said, for your country and “for each other.”

Be safe, he told them.

“Driving that truck on that terrain is exceedingly dangerous.”

Maj. Kerry Studer, commander of the 443rd, said the unit is trained and prepared.

“We should expect some ups and downs during this deployment, both for soldiers and families,” he said.

But, he said, he anticipates a successful deployment on both fronts.

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry praised the troops and their families, recognizing “this is a particularly challenging day” for everyone.

“Come home to us soon,” Fortenberry said.

First stop after leaving Nebraska within the next few days is Camp Atterburg in Indiana, where they will finish processing.

The unit recently completed pre-deployment training in California.

As a heavy equipment transporter, the 443rd will move Abrams M-1 tanks and Stryker combat vehicles, as well as construction equipment used to rebuild infrastructure in Iraq.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.