Messenger photo by Bill Shea: Area soldiers prepare for a yearlong deployment in the Middle East.

For a child, it’s tough to say goodbye to your father knowing he will be away for a full year.

Nolan Clements, 6, of North Sioux City, South Dakota, knows that, so he held onto his father, Staff Sgt. Eli Clements, for a long time Thursday afternoon. But all too soon, Eli Clements boarded a bus that took him and his fellow Iowa Army National Guard soldiers from Fort Dodge to a base in Louisiana, the first stop on their trip to the Middle East.

About 80 soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 194th Field Artillery, departed from their Fort Dodge readiness center Thursday afternoon to start their yearlong deployment.

“Today, we don’t just say farewell to this group, we affirm our deep respect and unwavering support for these soldiers who have once again answered our nation’s call,” Maj. Gen. Stephen E. Osborn, the adjutant general of the Iowa National Guard, said during a brief departure ceremony.

The soldiers from the local unit are among about 1,800 Iowa Army National Guard troops deploying for the overseas mission. Their upcoming task has been described as a security and support mission.

The soldiers are initially going to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson in Louisiana.

The first week there will be spent getting ready. Then there will be a four-day live fire training exercise.

After that the Iowa soldiers will spend 10 days in mock combat in a training area nicknamed The Box.

The soldiers will move to the Middle East in July.

They will return to Iowa in June 2006.

On Thursday afternoon, the soldiers stood in formation in the main room of the readiness center, with family members and friends surrounding them, for the departure ceremony.

Osborn said the troops are citizen-soldiers who “balance the responsibilities of civilian life with the readiness to serve wherever and whenever needed.”

He added that the support of family members and friends is “foundational” to the ability to complete the mission.

“I have every confidence that you will meet every challenge with the same grit and determination that got you here,” the general said.

Capt. David DeLayo, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, also saluted the soldiers’ family members.

“What means the most to your soldiers is your presence here today,” he said.

He said the soldiers are about to experience the “most difficult training the Army has to offer.”

Osborn presented an Iowa flag to DeLayo that will be flown overseas.

After the ceremony, the troops said their last goodbyes and loaded their gear into the two buses that took them to Louisiana.

The buses were escorted by Fort Dodge police and Webster County sheriff’s vehicles. Soldiers from other units and members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1856 saluted as the buses pulled out of the readiness center parking lot.