NORMAL - For the next 400 days, Lindsey Quam will face the day-to-day struggles of raising her two children alone. | Video

Her husband, Lt. Michael Quam, is one of about 20 soldiers from the Bloomington-based Illinois National Guard unit that will be sent to Afghanistan as part of the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

A deployment ceremony for the soldiers was Saturday afternoon at Heartland Community College.

For Lindsey Quam, the ceremony brought out her hesitation for her husband to leave. But it's not the birthdays or the holidays where she will miss her husband the most, she added.

"It's going to be the little things that we do every day that make us a family of four," Lindsey Quam said. The couple from Dubuque, Iowa, have two sons, Aiden, 2, and Keegan, 6 months.

"Bath time with the kids will be a struggle without him," she said. "Holidays we'll be with family so I'm not worried about that."

For Pat Grant of Charleston, watching the ceremony for his son, Trevor Grant of Bloomington, was more emotional that he thought.

"I'm proud of him but it is a little overwhelming," he said.

Grant said he, too, will miss the little things while his son is away.

"I won't have the ability to see him whenever I want or have dinner whenever," Grant said. "I'll miss having the opportunity to talk with him about the things fathers and sons talk about when they're together."

The soldiers from the Bloomington unit will join about 2,700 other Illinois Guard members being sent to Afghanistan in the fall. The troops are expected at Fort Bragg, N.C. for training.

Maj. Brad Leighton, a spokesman for the Guard, said during the more than yearlong mission, the Bloomington soldiers will provide military intelligence for force protection for the units within the 33rd Brigade.

"What they will do in theater is save lives," Leighton said.

Maj. Gen. Dennis Celletti and Col. Michael Haerr addressed the soldiers and their families about what is ahead for them.

Celletti called the family members "great patriots" and encouraged family members to work as a group to support each other while their soldiers are away.

Bloomington Mayor Steve Stockton called the deployment ceremony a double-edged sword.

"It is heartening to see volunteers who are willing to go off to another country for our protection," Stockton said. "But on the other hand, it hard to see you leave your families."

In addition to the Bloomington soldiers, about 350 soldiers from the 634th Brigade Support Battalion were honored at a ceremony Saturday at the Sullivan High School.