BLOOMINGTON - Eric Short and his wife, Wendy, were newlyweds when he deployed to Germany with the Illinois National Guard in 2002. Back then, the hard parts were learning the ins and outs of marital communication while separated by an ocean and haggling over money as they both raced to ATMs on payday.

This time, with Eric Short one of 2,700-plus soldiers from the Illinois Guard deploying to Afghanistan in the coming months, it's all about the Bloomington family's two children: Collin, 4, and Cooper, 15 months.

"When we first got the call-up, I was excited," said the 32-year-old Short, a sergeant with a Champaign-based maintenance unit. "But as the closer we got, I got more 50/50 on it. Now, it's just gonna be really hard, with the kids and everything."

Families across Illinois are preparing for the upcoming year-long deployment of about 30 units from the Illinois Guard to help train Afghan army and police, touted as the largest call-up of Illinois Guard units since World War II.

The first six units have already mobilized, including Pontiac's on Saturday; a Bloomington unit will join the rest heading out by the end of the fall.

In Central Illinois, the effect will be both significant and routine. Businesses will go without deployed employees for a year. Soldiers in college take time off from classes. Families pack a year of housework into a month or two before a spouse's deployment. Weddings are missed. Chicago Bears games are never seen.

Too busy to worry

As pre-deployment training winds down and families like the Shorts spend more time talking about wills, power of attorney and long-term financial security, the dangers of serving in Afghanistan become clearer. During the month of July, more U.S. troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq, for the first time since the Iraq war started in 2003.

"I guess I wasn't worried too much because we were so busy," said Wendy Short, who said working at State Farm Insurance Cos. gives her a leg-up on sorting out her husband's military benefits. "But we only have so many weekends left before (Eric's) gone for a whole year."

Guard families who had at one time been thankful they were at least not headed to Iraq have shown increased apprehension with reports of increased violence in Afghanistan, said Annette Chapman of Atlanta, family readiness support assistant for the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, made up of the 30-plus units.

"We're at a turning point in Afghanistan, for good or bad," said Staff Sgt. Brian Hempstead, 28, of Bloomington, who's deploying with his new wife, Spc. Elizabeth Hempstead, 25, and their Urbana-based headquarters unit.

The Hempsteads, who got married July 19 and will squeeze in a trip to Disney World before deploying, are in a unit that will be doing a lot of office work in Afghanistan.

That's a far cry from Brian Hempstead's other four deployments, though this is his first with the Guard.

"Mentally preparing is not as difficult as it was when I went to Iraq with the invasion and I was on top of a Humvee with a machine gun," he said.

Still, his one big piece of advice for his wife on her first deployment was to expect the unexpected and stay flexible, an important lesson as they wait in "limbo" on a decision on whether they'll get to live together while there.

"We're lucky enough to be deploying together," said Elizabeth Hempstead, who works in customer service at Country Financial.

Military family readiness

For the families left behind - who some say have the toughest job of all - a large network of family readiness volunteers and full-time staff try to make sure nobody is left in the dark when military insurance or pay issues arise, for example.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the military has more publicly linked family readiness to military readiness; the general thinking that a family well-supported at home is less distracting for a deployed soldier than a family that's offered no assistance. That's led to the creation of new positions like Chapman's and outreach methods that soldiers say were not around just a few years ago.

Chapman's husband, Harold, 40, is in the Bloomington-based unit, and the deployment to Afghanistan is his first. But when he went to basic training, Annette Chapman says her family felt an isolation that left her asking her husband's recruiter questions when his insurance and pay got messed up - because she didn't know where else to go.

"Because we are citizen-soldier families in the community, we don't live on an active-duty Army base. Our neighbor's not going through the same thing we're going through. So we do feel isolated because we are, in a sense."

Tammy Heap was a family readiness group leader for the Streator-based 1744th Transportation Company during its deployment to Iraq in 2006-07.

She said the most valuable part of the program was the emotional support spouses and parents were able to provide one another through monthly meetings and phone calls. Even more so when soldiers would come home for brief leaves and family members noticed their soldiers acting strangely similar.

"They had distanced themselves because they knew they had to go back," Heap said.

She said back then the military too often relied on soldiers to relay information about family readiness activities to their loved ones, meaning some families got left out. It's more common now for families to be contacted directly by volunteers or full-time staff before and during a deployment, family readiness officials said.

'We know the risk'

Spc. Michael Chasteen's family doesn't know what to expect when he leaves. They may seek out support from other families; they may not.

The 25-year-old from Bloomington moved back in with his parents, Steve and Kay Chasteen, and didn't bother starting fall classes at Heartland Community College while waiting to deploy as a military policeman with a Machesney Park unit.

His parents know post-traumatic stress disorder- or something worse - is a risk. But they've also heard the stories of soldiers who treat it as a job, come home OK and move on with their lives.

"That's the career he's chosen to do. He knows the risk, we know the risk, and everybody hopes nothing happens," said Steve Chasteen, whose family knows about worrying after his 27 years with the Bloomington Fire Department.

For now, Michael Chasteen says he's trying to appreciate day-to-day life more, riding his bike around town, jogging more, spending more time with friends.

"I'm not necessarily excited about going to war, but I'm definitely proud that I am," he said.

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About the deployment

What: More than 2,700 soldiers across about 30 units from the Illinois National Guard's 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) are deploying to Afghanistan this summer and fall.

Why: The Illinois-led Task Force Phoenix VIII will train and mentor Afghan army and national police. They are relieving a New York combat brigade currently performing the mission as Task Force Phoenix VII.

When: The Pontiac unit's deployment ceremony was Saturday. Bloomington and the others are expected to deploy by late fall. Deployments will be for one year. Some Guard units who had deployed previously were on longer deployments, such as the Streator-based 1744th Transportation Company.

Who: Among them are 70 soldiers from the Bloomington-based Company B, Military Intelligence, 33rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, based in the armory at 1616 S. Main St.; and 80 members of the Pontiac-based Troop A, 2-106th Cavalry. Central Illinois soldiers can serve in units based outside the area, and residents from across the state can serve in Central Illinois-based units.

The risk: In July, more U.S. troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq for the month, for the first time since the Iraq war began in 2003. In all, 92 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan this year, a pace that would surpass last year's death toll of 111. The U.S. death toll in Afghanistan is at least 500.

Training: The IBCT has been training since November 2007. A massive three-week training exercise in Fort Chaffee, Ark., in June used role players who acted as Afghan civilians in "theater-immersion training scenarios," partly to educate soldiers on the cultures they will encounter once they land in Afghanistan.

SOURCES: Illinois National Guard, Pantagraph archives, The Associated Press

On the Web

Task Force Phoenix - For more on the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team's mission, log on to:

www.taskforcephoenix.com