Missing a brother while he fights overseas for his country isn't a new feeling for Ashley Hitt.

But that doesn't make it any easier.

Emotion and tears overcame the 21-year-old from Wheatland as she watched the deployment ceremony Sunday for some of the roughly 700 Wyoming National Guard members deploying to the Middle East.

Ashley's older brother, Spc. Roy Hitt, 26, leaves for Kuwait today.

Two years ago, Ashley's other brother William Hitt, 24, went to Afghanistan, so she knows what it's like to be a scared younger sister.

Even though she knows Roy wants to serve his country, she admitted she hated the fact her brother was leaving.

"Because he's my brother," Ashley said before the ceremony began at the Casper Events Center. "We've grown up together. I've known him for 21 years."

Roy will miss his nephew's birth, she said. Ashley is six months pregnant and plans to have a Cesarean section July 25, coincidentally Roy's birthday.

Ashley was joined by 13 other family members who came to Casper in support of Roy's deployment. Her brother William and their parents were also there.

As the family waited for the ceremony to start, Merlin Hitt talked about what it's like to have two sons in the military.

"It's ironic," he said. "Because I grew up in the Vietnam era and I didn't join the military."

However, Merlin's father, also named Roy, served in the Korean War.

Though Ashley plans to name her baby Robert, she said she is keeping her options open.

"Hey, we don't have a Roy for this generation," she told her dad as she rubbed her round belly.

Merlin played the role of comforter perfectly Sunday.

He grabbed Ashley's foot, which was resting on the seat next to him, when she started to tear up during U.S Rep. Cynthia Lummis' address.

"There is no soldier like a Wyoming soldier," the Republican representative said.

Speakers, which included the rest of Wyoming's congressional delegation and other key state officials, highlighted the difficulty family members have while soldiers are away and the strength they possess to carry on without their loved ones.

Ashley said she would be scared for her brother while he is in the Middle East. Roy will run convoy protection into Baghdad.

"He'll be doing ground work, and he's going into the mess," Ashley said. "I just hope he comes back."

She knows her brother is prepared, though. Roy joined the U.S. Army right out of high school in 2000 and continued his military career when he joined the national guard about two and a half years ago.

Still, emotions ran high. Ashley broke down in tears as members of the Eastern Shoshone tribe played the drums and the ceremony came to a close. She held her husband's hand tight and Joe Scott put his arms around his wife in support.

"I don't think we are quite ready for him to go," she said.

Commanders of the Wyoming guard assured families and friends the soldiers leaving this week are some of the most experienced and well-trained soldiers Wyoming has ever seen.

Many of the soldiers will be on the second, third or fourth tours and Maj. Gen. Ed Wright, director of the Wyoming Military Department, made those soldiers in the audience stand.

"They are all going to come home very safe," Wright said.

The family will stick together as they wait for Roy to come home. Ashley said her parents live next door to her grandparents and she and her husband live less than a mile from her parents.

"It's OK, Ash. He will be home," her father reassured her.

And dad passed her a white hankie so the soldier's sister could dry her tears.

Contact reporter Allison Rupp at (307) 266-0534 or allison.rupp@trib.com.