FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) — Many family members and friends shed tears Saturday during the departure ceremony for more than 3,000 Indiana National Guard soldiers about to leave for Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of First Army Division East, told members of the Indiana Guard's 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team they have received realistic and challenging training since arriving at Fort Stewart at the beginning of January.

"The soldiers standing on this field exemplify all that is good about our Army and our nation," Hood said. "They are the patriots who stepped forward who answered the call to service."

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels spoke of his visit on Friday to Warriors Walk — which has 386 Eastern Redbud trees, each one representing a fallen soldier from the 3rd Infantry Division based at Fort Stewart — and about the pictures taken in Iraq he found wrapped in a plastic shield under one of the trees.

They were left there by a soldier who took them from his fighting position with a note written on the back of one of them that read, "I rather fight them here."

"Because he did, because you will, there has not been another attack on this country," Daniels said. "We are safer than we expected to be. Thank God for those who made that so."

Fort Stewart has been a training ground for National Guard units facing deployment to Iraq. The brigade will begin shipping out from Fort Stewart to Iraq in the coming weeks, Indiana Guard Capt. Lisa Kopczynski said. She declined to say exactly when and where the unit would deploy for security reasons.

In Iraq, the Indiana soldiers will be involved in various tasks, including force protection, convoy protection and rear base operations, Kopczynski said.

The ceremony concluded with the brigade combat team marching off the field in front of dignitaries and about 5,000 family members.

Christine Davis of Evansville, Ind., who was there to see her husband Karl off, stood on the side of the parade field watching the soldiers pass with her mother-in-law, Lottie Davis.

"I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm glad he is going because this is what he wants to do, but its going to be hard on me," Christine Davis said, wiping her eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Christine Davis said she was now going to have to deal with the daily things her husband took care of such as paying bills and getting household items repaired when needed. Her biggest regret, though, is how little time they have left before his deployment.

"I'm only going to have four days with Karl," she said. "That doesn't make up for the four months I haven't been with him and the months he is going to be away."