ROCK SPRINGS - There's no doubt he'll be dubbed the "old man" of the brigade.

At a time when most other 57-year-olds are thinking about grandkids and retirement, Major Leon Chamberlain of Douglas is preparing with some 950 other Wyoming National Guard members for his first deployment to Iraq.

Chamberlain will serve as the behavioral mental health officer for the National Guard's 115th Fires Brigade during its one-year deployment as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"They're already calling me the old man of the unit," Chamberlain said with a grin.

Though he'll sorely miss his wife Jeanne, his two grown children and his soon-to-be-born first grandchild while helping with the unit's convoy protection missions, Chamberlain said serving was "the right thing and the important thing" to do.

"In my heart I don't really want to be away from my family, but as a soldier, the 115th is also my family," Chamberlain said this week during a community outreach program for Sweetwater County residents in Rock Springs.

"I want to help every soldier in the unit to come home healthy," he said.

"The unit is very skilled at what we do … they're well-trained and they're going over with great confidence," Chamberlain said. "They will do a good job."

Officials with the Wyoming Army National Guard met with a small crowd of area residents at the Rock Springs Armory to talk about the unit's deployment to Kuwait and Iraq next summer.

Guard commanders said the mobilization of the 115th Fires Brigade unit is the largest single deployment of servicemen and women from Wyoming in generations.

Unit Commander Col. Richard Knowlton will lead more than 2,400 total military personnel from five states, including the Wyoming Army Guard unit. The soldiers come from units stationed in Wyoming, Alabama, Minnesota, South Dakota and Colorado.

Knowlton stressed the importance of keeping soldiers, families and community members informed about the mission and actively engaged in the state's organized support systems, including the Wyoming Veterans Advocacy Program and local family readiness groups.

"When you mobilize soldiers, you also mobilize the community and deployment can be a pretty traumatic experience with a lot of impacts to families and employers," he said.

"It affects everybody differently, but it affects everybody," Knowlton said. "We want to help build those safety nets and smooth this transition before deployment."

Contact southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino at (307) 875-5359 or gearino@tribcsp.com

Last we knew: About 950 Wyoming National Guard soldiers were called up in October to serve in Kuwait and Iraq next year, which represents nearly half of Wyoming's National Guard force.

The latest: Col. Richard Knowlton, commander of the unit, met with Rock Springs residents Wednesday night as part of a statewide community outreach campaign to discuss the upcoming deployment.

What's next: Knowlton and other commanders with the 115th Fires Brigade will meet with eastern Wyoming residents tonight in Torrington at 5:30 p.m. at the Torrington Armory and Dec. 10 in Cheyenne.

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Unit Commander Col. Richard Knowlton said the 115th Fires Brigade will have three missions: security and protection for both military and civilian contractor convoys; U.S. Forces protection; and management planning for forward-operations bases. He expects most missions will provide security for convoys moving troops and supplies from Kuwait into Iraq, and then from Iraq.]]->