At 9:30 a.m. today, these two dads will cry and kiss goodbye the ones who will be waiting impatiently for their return next June.

By 10:30 a.m., the unit – which also includes a few women soldiers – will board a bus to Huntsville International Airport.

Later today, the battalion will fly to Fort Bliss, Texas, where they will train for six more weeks.

Then their true mission begins.

In early August, they will head to Basra, Iraq, to secure Iraqi police stations and oversee convoy and weapons training for police officers so they can take over when U.S. forces leave.

“After today, there will only be 363 days left in our tour,” Chief Warrant Officer Kevin Slaten of Athens joked as he prepares for the deployment ceremony at Beasley Field on Friday. Kevin, 45, will supervise maintenance personnel in Iraq. He seems more at ease with his assignment than some of the younger soldiers. For one thing, he will be “inside the wire,” he said, meaning in a safer position than those forward. For another, he has already served tours in Saudi Arabia in 2001 and in Germany in 2007. Plus, serving his country seems to be in his blood. He hails from a military family that has accrued 153 years (and counting) of military service since 1947. Kevin’s dad, Army Master Sgt. Raymond Slaten, is a Korean War veteran and retired Army National Guard. Kevin’s brother, Danny, as well as his brothers-in-law, Tom Perry and Tommy Sprague, and his nephews, Eric Sprague and Nathaniel Buddy Slaten, are all military men.

Kevin said he will miss his wife, Tammy, a second-grade teacher at Cedar Hill Elementary School; his 23-year-old daughter Whitney Williams; and his 22-year-old daughter, Katie Slaten. He jokingly dismissed the thought of them missing him.

“As soon as I leave, the party will begin,” he said.

His sense of humor will make it easier for his family as they try to carry on without him.

Raymond wonders if his son’s departure would be easier for a father who hadn’t seen war before.

“It probably would because I know what can happen,” Raymond said.

While serving in Korea from 1951 and part of ’52, Raymond was among 160 soldiers in the 1343rd C Company whose job it was to build roads and bridges and keep supply lines open. He joined the Alabama National Guard in 1947 and was deployed to South Korea from 1951 through part of ’52. He served as a truck driver and heavy-equipment operator, earning four battle stars before returning home.

“We worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week but we were prepared to fight at any time,” Raymond said. “We were trained so that if the enemy appeared, you aim your M1 and start killing.”

As Kevin prepares to ship out, Raymond tries not to invest in worry because it doesn’t pay off.

“My wife, Mildred, don’t think much of it because they have to go to Iraq, but I tell her worrying won’t help nothing. I try not to worry. But if people drive up in the yard and say he was killed in action, that would kill me.”