With light snow on the ground and the temperature in the 30s, the citizen-soldiers of Greeneville-based Troop L of the Tennessee National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) departed Sunday morning on the first leg of a journey that will eventually take them to Iraq.

A small advance party of Troop L soldiers had departed Greeneville in a convoy of military trucks on Saturday morning, (See related article on this page.) but the bulk of the unit departed the National Guard Armory on Hal Henard Road shortly before 10 a.m. aboard three Greene Coach buses.

Troop L was bound for Camp Shelby, Miss., where they, and the rest of the 3,000 soldiers that make up the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment are to undergo additional training before deploying to Iraq early in February.

Dozens of family members, including a large number of children, gathered at the National Guard Armory on Sunday morning to see the departing soldiers off.

The soldiers had stood in formation at 8:30 a.m., and both they and their families had been treated to breakfast by the unit's Family Readiness Group, a support organization composed largely of soldiers' spouses.

Among the family members who stood in freezing temperatures early Sunday morning outside the armory to spend as much time as possible with the departing soldiers were Vickie Buckles, of Unicoi County, and her children ,Trinity, McKenzie and Austin Buckles.

Vickie Buckles and the children were there to say goodbye to their husband and father, Spc. Jose Buckles.

"It's going to be hard," Vickie Buckles said in a quavering voice, referring to the coming months without her husband.

Spc. Buckles also said departing on a journey that will take him to a war zone was going to be difficult because he had never been away from his family for more than five months.

That five-month separation, he said, was when he was attending basic training and advanced individual training last year.

Buckles said he believes his family will be able to manage his deployment to Iraq because "they know Daddy is going to be safe, Daddy is protecting them, and Daddy will come home to be with them."

For most of the Troop L soldiers, like Spc. Buckles, the deployment to Iraq will be their first because they have joined the National Guard since the locally-based unit (formerly known as Troop G) last went to Iraq in 2004-05.

A unit spokesman said last week that only about 20 veterans of the local National Guard unit's last deployment to Iraq remain with what is now Troop L.

But Capt. Gary Price, Troop L's commanding officer, said all the unit's key non-commissioned officers are Iraq veterans.

In addition, even some of the junior enlisted men, such as Spc. Ricky Lynn Dean, of Chuckey, have been to Iraq.

Dean said he had been in basic training at the time the 278th ACR deployed to Iraq in 2004 and was unable to deploy with the unit.

But after he completed basic training, Dean said, he volunteered to deploy to Iraq with a unit of the Georgia National Guard.

On Sunday, Dean said he had become a new father only days ago with the birth of his daughter, Riley Lynn Dean.

"I didn't think I was going to be here when she was born because of the deployment," Dean said.

But Takoma Regional Hospital physicians who were attending his wife induced labor in time for his daughter to be born before his unit's deployment began.

"She weighed seven pounds and 12 ounces," he said of his daughter. "She's the greatest thing I've ever seen!"

Dean noted that his wife, Mary Ann, and little Riley are doing well, as are his two stepdaughters, ages two and three.

Deploying is now even harder, he said, because of the new addition to the family. "My daughters and my wife have made my life complete," he said.

Sgt. Jeremy Bonds, another veteran of the local National Guard unit's first deployment to Iraq, also was among the departing soldiers, according to his grandmother, Rebecca Lopez.

She noted that she, his grandfather, B.C. Lopez, his wife, and his mother-in-law were all on hand for the unit's departure.

Bonds had been among the younger members of what was then Troop G when the unit deployed in 2004, but he is now a veteran in a unit largely composed of young privates and specialists.

As the scheduled 9:50 a.m. bus departure time neared on Sunday morning, soldiers were called into formation by First Sgt. Dwayne Huskey, who thanked the soldiers' families, and motorcyclists from the Patriot Guard and the Iron Riders, for coming out "on a cold day" to support the soldiers.

Huskey told the assembled soldiers to pick up 10 copies of their deployment orders and have their identification tags and identification cards visible for inspection before boarding the waiting buses.

The soldiers earlier had loaded most of their baggage onto the buses. They moved toward the waiting buses one-by-one as their names were called.

As the soldiers boarded the buses, many received goodbye hugs from family members as the motorcycles that were to escort them from the armory's parking lot moved into position behind a Greeneville Police Department patrol car driven by Sgt. Steve Spano.

When all the soldiers were aboard, the procession of motorcycles and buses moved out of the parking lot and onto Hal Henard Road, where sheriff's deputies joined the procession. Many supporters lined the road to wave goodbye.

After the buses passed, units of the Greene County Chapter of the American Red Cross, the Greeneville Emergency & Rescue Squad, and a fire engine from Unicoi County fell in behind the departing buses.

As the departing buses reached the intersection of Hal Henard Road and the West Andrew Johnson Highway (U.S. 11E), they passed beneath a large American Flag that was suspended from the upraised aerial ladder of a Greeneville Fire Department fire engine.

As the buses and their escorting vehicles turned left onto the West Andrew Johnson Highway, they were greeted by the first of many citizens who lined the edge of the highway to show support.

Greeneville Mayor Laraine King and Greene County Mayor Alan Broyles, on Friday, had asked local residents to "line the highway" to show support as the Troop L soldiers departed.

Many did so despite Sunday morning's chill and the departure time's conflict with church services.

Many of the supporters lining the highway waved U.S. flags. Others held aloft signs wishing the departing soldiers well.

Most of the escorting vehicles ended their participation when the buses reached Interstate 81's Exit 23 in Mosheim.

But a spokesman for the motorcyclists said they planned to continue escorting the buses until they reached Fish Hatchery Road in Hamblen County.

The Troop L soldiers are scheduled to return home for a brief Christmas leave about Dec. 20.

A departure ceremony for the 278th ACR is scheduled to be held on Feb. 5 at Camp Shelby, Miss.