National Guardsmen and their guests ate pulled-pork sandwiches and sipped lemonade at an Auburn park Tuesday.

Kids filled two inflatable playgrounds. Politicians delivered speeches and posed for photos.

And in the final hours before sending off their soldiers for a year, family members chatted about life with their loved ones serving overseas.

“It’s a little scary,” said Jenny Anderson, wife of Spc. Randall Anderson. “It’s a little stressful. But it’s kind of exciting at the same time. It’s cool that he’s going to serve his country. The kids consider him their hero.”

It is families like the Andersons whom the commander of the 81st Brigade Combat Team calls “the unsung heroes of this deployment.”

Similar farewell ceremonies were held at 11 other sites across the state Tuesday, as the 2,500-member brigade embarks today on one last training in Wisconsin before deploying to Iraq. The soldiers already spent 28 days at the Yakima Training Center in July and August.

Randall Anderson took his family on a dinner cruise and a camping trip to make the most of his 10 days of leave. He just wanted to spend time with his wife and three children.

Now comes the difficult part for Anderson, a 33-year-old military policeman from Puyallup.

“I’m not nervous when it comes to doing my job,” he said. “I’m just not looking forward to leaving my family behind.”

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If you're interested in hearing the speeches at today's farewell ceremony in Auburn, click below. Each are only a few minutes long.

Gov. Chris Gregoire

Rep. Dave Reichert

Rep. Adam Smith

Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis

Spc. Edward Mears sat atop the hill during the ceremony and silently watched his twin sons play in the grass. Deployment hasn’t been much to celebrate for his household.

“It’s tough,” he said. “It’s tough on me. It’s tough on them. It’s tough on my wife. It’s tough on my daughter. These last 10 days have been like a breeze. They just went so fast.”

Mears, a 36-year-old Tacoma resident, served with the 81st Brigade during its first deployment to Iraq in 2004-05. This time around is more difficult, he said, because his 4-year-old sons and 2-year-old daughter are old enough to realize their father will be gone.

And the 10-day leave just made it harder on everyone, he said.

“It just makes it harder for the family to say good-bye again. You’ve got 28 days where I’m gone, and then I’m back for 10 days. And they’re like, ‘Where did that come from?’

“It’s harder on them, and it makes it harder for me to say good-bye again.”

Randall Anderson took his family on a dinner cruise and a camping trip to make the most of his 10 days of pre-deployment leave.

That small slice of normalcy has ended for Anderson and others in the 81st Brigade Combat Team of the Washington National Guard. Now comes the difficult part. For Anderson, a 33-year-old specialist from Puyallup, that doesn’t necessarily mean entering a war zone.

“I’m not nervous when it comes to doing my job,” he said. “I’m just not looking forward to leaving my family behind.”

Anderson spent his last hours before deployment with his wife and three children – aged 4, 2 and 4 months – at a farewell ceremony at Game Farm Park in Auburn.

“It’s a little scary,” his wife, Jenny, said. “It’s a little stressful. But it’s kind of exciting at the same time. It’s cool that he’s going to serve his country. The kids consider him their hero.”

Hunter Ellis joined the Washington National Guard last September. The 19-year-old Olympia resident felt the call of service – his family has a history in the military – and graduated from basic training on July 31.

Still, he wasn’t certain if he would be able to join the 81st Brigade in time for its deployment – until Monday.

“Yesterday was the first day with my unit,” he said. “And I’m excited. I want to go and do my job. It’s what I was trained to do.”

Col. Ronald Kapral sat at the wooden picnic table and flipped through white index cards. The man who will lead the 81st Brigade into war was minutes away from addressing more than 700 soldiers at Auburn’s Game Farm Park, and he was trying at the last minute to nail his speech.

“I don’t even know why I write all this down,” he said. “I usually just get up there and ad-lib it.”

That might be more appropriate for the ceremony, which seems relaxed by military standards. Families and soldiers are milling about the park, taking cover from the sun under tents. Everyone seems to be snapping photos, and there is more than a few footballs sailing through the air. An inflatable playground in one corner is set up for kids to enjoy their time.

And, of course, there has been more than one joke about getting in that one last beer before deployment.

Terry Harder and Steven Cook took some time off the campaign trail to welcome visitors to today’s farewell ceremony in Auburn.

The Republicans are running for seats in the state House of Representatives out of the 29th District. But on Tuesday afternoon, they stood at the entrance to Game Farm Park and held American flags.

“We want to let them know that the public does care about them,” Harder said. “We want them to know that their families and the public support them. And that’s more important than campaigning today.”

And it didn't look like just a ploy to snag some votes. Both wore shirts with the logo of Operation Support Our Troops, and there was nary a campaign brochure to be seen.

They’re not the only politicians here today. Dino Rossi is working his way through the crowd, posing for photos and shaking hands of the soldiers and their families who are preparing to deploy.

And we’ve heard that Gov. Chris Gregoire and Rep. Dave Reichart are also expected to be in attendance.

Photographer Russ Carmack and I were out at the Yakima Training Center last weekend, and Russ came back with some fantastic photos. A few of them required some pretty nifty techniques.

We were riding along in a Humvee during training with the .50-caliber machine guns. The original plan to open up the back of the vehicle and let us stand behind the gunner was quashed by the safety guru on site (and for good reason, in retrospect). Still, that didn’t stop Russ, who used a remote control, a tripod and some duct tape to get these shots:

Click below to find out how he got them:

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The convoy of five Humvees rolled down a dirt road when a voice boomed across the radio.

“Indirect fire! Indirect fire! Roll through! Roll through!”

Spc. Shane Sotocole mashed the accelerator. The vehicle jerked forward. Dust from the convoy darkened the bright sky.

The same voice on the radio had a different message seconds later.

“Gas!”

Sotocole hit the brakes as the Humvee skidded to a stop on the side of the road. He and two passengers, Sgt. Terrell Fox and Sgt. Terry Meyers, unzipped green pouches attached to their belt. They slipped black gasmasks over their face.

A minute later, the same voice announced an all-clear. The three soldiers, members of the Washington National Guard’s 81st Brigade Combat Team, removed the masks. Meyers, sitting in the passenger seat, turned to his colleagues and nodded.

“This is the kind of stuff that’s gonna save us over there,” he said.

Over there. Iraq.

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Spc. Antonio Shepard returned from a deployment with the Virginia National Guard two months ago, spending his year in the Middle East as a gunner on convoys running supplies from Kuwait into Iraq.

Time for a long, relaxing break, right? Nope. Shepard is heading back.

The 23-year-old Atlanta native transferred last month to the Washington National Guard and joined the 1st Brigade, 161st Infantry Regiment.

“I just want to knock another deployment out before I finish school,” he said. “I won’t be going any more after this, so I can focus on classes instead of thinking about deploying again.”

Shepard is one of about 35 “interstate transfer” soldiers, brigade commander Col. Ronald Kapral said. Many of these Guardsmen transferred because they want to deploy, but their Guard unit might not be scheduled to for year

“We’ve had people drive here from Georgia and Tennessee just to fight with the 81st,” Kapral said.

Spc. Raymond Hearne had served with the Washington National Guard before accepting a job offer and moving to Coos Bay, Ore., last year. He kept in contact with his colleagues and transferred when he heard his old unit was deploying.

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Choose your comparison. Chances are they’ve heard it.

Refugee camp? Can of sardines?

“Yep. Yep,” said Cpl. Brandon Truman of Tacoma. “We’ve made them all.”

Truman, a member of the 81st Brigade’s 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry Division is one of about 300 soldiers sleeping in a massive tent during exercises at Yakima Training Center.

Another tent on the grounds is the temporary home of almost 1,000 Guardsmen.

The tents are stuffed with row after row of cots, many just inches from each other. Duffel bags, shoes, backpacks and other personal objects cover the floor. Soldiers are constantly chatting to each other, talking on cell phones, napping or reading.

Sounds bad? Many Guardsmen seem to prefer tent living – this is the desert, and the tents have something the barracks don’t: air conditioning.

“It’s really nice in until morning – then it can get too cold,” Cadet Jay Ladines of Cheney said. “But I’d rather be in here than the barracks.”

Other factors remind soldiers that this ain’t the Ritz. Truman said it one person can catch an illness and spread it to everyone else. It can remain noisy until pretty late. And the bathrooms are outside, several hundred feet away.