CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Several times Friday afternoon, Julie DiPasquale held hands with her sons while they watched their father and her husband stand alongside 79 other National Guard members who were officially activated for duty.

"I worry about my children because they are so young," DiPasquale said of her sons, 7-year-old Ethan and 4-year-old Evan. "I try to keep it together for them."

The Follansbee family and other families and friends of the 151st Military Police Battalion watched as a band played and the detachment's flag was unfurled in a ceremony Friday at Embassy Suites in Charleston.

The Dunbar-based battalion leaves today for Fort Bliss, Texas. Its members will train there for 45 days before heading overseas to train Iraqi security forces.

For the next year, they will leave behind their country, families and friends.

The battalion is the first from West Virginia that will fully complete the Yellow Ribbon program, which helps acclimate soldiers and their families to their time apart.

The program ushers families through the stages of deployment, equipping family members with the tools to adjust to the difficult lifestyle. It provides them with knowledge about everything from who to call if they need utility assistance to how servicemembers should converse with their loved ones.

Troops like Sgt. Sheila Hyde of West Union have been deployed before. Unlike her fellow troops, she won't leave her entire family behind, at least not for long.

Hyde's youngest daughter, Naomi, jumped at the chance to join her mother overseas. "When I found out that they were deploying, I wanted to be in her unit," Naomi said.

They will join more family abroad. Sheila's oldest daughter is stationed in Iraq with the U.S. Air Force. Yet another daughter completed basic training Friday and looks forward to possible deployment, as well, and Sheila's husband is waiting for deployment himself. 

Although the entire family will be overseas, they will still face similar issues as the families at home.

"If this was my first time deploying, the [Yellow Ribbon] program would have been awesome," Sheila said. "There is just so much information. It was very, very helpful."

Naomi Hyde said shipping out with her mother is comforting, but also adds another element of worry.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Several times Friday afternoon, Julie DiPasquale held hands with her sons while they watched their father and her husband stand alongside 79 other National Guard members who were officially activated for duty.

"I worry about my children because they are so young," DiPasquale said of her sons, 7-year-old Ethan and 4-year-old Evan. "I try to keep it together for them."

The Follansbee family and other families and friends of the 151st Military Police Battalion watched as a band played and the detachment's flag was unfurled in a ceremony Friday at Embassy Suites in Charleston.

The Dunbar-based battalion leaves today for Fort Bliss, Texas. Its members will train there for 45 days before heading overseas to train Iraqi security forces.

For the next year, they will leave behind their country, families and friends.

The battalion is the first from West Virginia that will fully complete the Yellow Ribbon program, which helps acclimate soldiers and their families to their time apart.

The program ushers families through the stages of deployment, equipping family members with the tools to adjust to the difficult lifestyle. It provides them with knowledge about everything from who to call if they need utility assistance to how servicemembers should converse with their loved ones.

Troops like Sgt. Sheila Hyde of West Union have been deployed before. Unlike her fellow troops, she won't leave her entire family behind, at least not for long.

Hyde's youngest daughter, Naomi, jumped at the chance to join her mother overseas. "When I found out that they were deploying, I wanted to be in her unit," Naomi said.

They will join more family abroad. Sheila's oldest daughter is stationed in Iraq with the U.S. Air Force. Yet another daughter completed basic training Friday and looks forward to possible deployment, as well, and Sheila's husband is waiting for deployment himself. 

Although the entire family will be overseas, they will still face similar issues as the families at home.

"If this was my first time deploying, the [Yellow Ribbon] program would have been awesome," Sheila said. "There is just so much information. It was very, very helpful."

Naomi Hyde said shipping out with her mother is comforting, but also adds another element of worry.

Through all of the training, Sheila passed on advice to her daughter. Once they reach the Middle East, that won't change.

"I'll be watching her back," Sheila said, "and she'll be watching mine."

Like Hyde, personnel officer Matt Izzo of Cross Lanes has deployed before, in 1990 and again in 1991.

This time, though, he leaves his four children behind.

He said the Yellow Ribbon program helped prepare him and his family for what's about to come. The program, he said, has made a huge difference since it was introduced.

"If you look back at the beginning of the war on terror, there was only one full-time person in West Virginia working on this," he said. "Now there are 20."

During the ceremony, battalion commander Lt. Col. James McHugh told families their loved ones were properly trained and will be safe. He also promised that, through the Yellow Ribbon program, the troops will know their families have a strong support group.

This was important for DiPasquale, whose husband has been deployed before, for 16 months but never overseas.

Now she has to be an "independent wife," and take care of their two children. Her oldest, Ethan, was too young to remember when his dad deployed in 2005. Julie and her husband have talked to him about it now that he's older.

"He understands the word 'deployment,'" she said.

Still, Ethan's already waiting for his father to come home.

"He's excited to go and pick him up at the airport," she said.

Reach Jon Offredo at jonoffr...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5189.