NORMAL - Master Sgt. Richard Dorbeck said goodbye to everyone in his family at the deployment ceremony held for the 33rd Military Police Battalion Sunday afternoon - except for his son.

That's because Dorbeck's son, who is in the same unit, will be going with him on his second tour of duty in Iraq. "It makes me feel better going overseas, knowing that he's with me," he said. "And I can also look out for him."

The Dorbecks are just two of the 73 members of the Illinois Army National Guard in Bloomington who will leave today to spend about a year in Iraq.

Around 500 people attended the ceremony, which was in the Kingsley Junior High School gym. Nearly 30 members of the Patriot Guard Riders, a group of veterans and motorcyclists, held flags on the sidewalk leading into the school. Family and friends in the audience wore red, white and blue and some held flags or signs.

"Today our country calls and we answer," said Lt. Col. George Rakers. "We stand ready to defend this great nation and we pray for peace for the years to come. We will not falter and we will not fail."

This morning there will also be a farewell salute to the troops along Veterans Parkway as the battalion heads out of town.

The farewell salute begins at 7:30 as the convoy follows Veterans Parkway from the Illinois National Guard Armory on Main Street in Bloomington to Interstate 55 in north Normal.

Richard Dorbeck said joining the military runs in his family.

"My son makes the fourth generation," he said. "I joined in 1972 for the same reason others in my family did - we feel it's part of what we owe our country."

But that doesn't make it easier to leave his family behind for the next year or so.

"It's not an easy life. There are a lot of sacrifices you make," he said.

His son, Richard William Dorbeck, pulled his sleeve back to reveal a hospital bracelet that was still on his wrist. His wife, Jill, gave birth to their newborn son, Carter, on Thursday. She was not at the ceremony because she had just returned home from the hospital a few hours earlier. Dorbeck also said goodbye to his 7-year-old son, Christopher.

Sgt. 1st Class Charles Riippi of Sycamore asked his girlfriend, Danielle Jaksic to marry him before the ceremony.

"We've been together for a while and we want to start a family," Jaksic said. "It's been a very long, stressful couple of weeks, so this is a perfect ending."

LaTonya Harris, coordinator of Family Readiness Group, a support group for military families, said the first deployment is hard. This is the second time her husband, Staff Sgt. Sean Harris, has been deployed.

"For some of us who have been through it before, we've been telling them what to expect," she said. "There are going to be down days when you miss your husband (or wife), but it's OK if they have apprehensions about how it's going to be."

Harris said the families are already looking forward to the unit's return home.

"It's going to be a big day, when they come back," she said. "I already told Sean, 'when you get back, we'll be here with the biggest sign.'"