(WSBT) Final training is now underway for 175 local Army National Guardsmen preparing for their second tour in Iraq. South Bend-based Company F arrived at Fort Dix in New Jersey in early June, and an Army spokesperson says they'll deploy to Kuwait sometime in August.

As that deployment date approaches, their families and friends are making their own preparations — supporting each other through the Army National Guard's Family Readiness Group.

Company F left for Fort Dix June 2. For family and friends the emotions are less visible but haven't gone away.

For Heather Stephens, those emotions center around 8-month-old Nicholas, whose father Zach will soon be headed overseas for the first time.

"It's overwhelming," she said of the emotions she now feels. "He's going to miss his first birthday, first Christmas, first everything — see him grow up. He's starting to get his two front teeth. It's hard."

But Stephens has found a way to make it easier — a new support network at South Bend's Reserve Center, filled with the families of those serving by her boyfriend's side and feeling the same emotions she is.

Cindy Rice is one of them, though she has a slightly different perspective. Rice served in the first Gulf War. Now, she's preparing to watch her son Nicholas follow in her footsteps.

"As a soldier to another soldier, I'm really proud," she said Sunday. "As a mother, I'm worried, because I know what it's all about."

But she also now knows a new military family.

"They're all in the same situation we are!" she said.

And Rice says that means "everything" now, and for the next 13 months, as the family readiness group looks forward to the day they can begin preparing for a hero's welcome home.

Indiana 2nd District Congressman Joe Donnelly plans to visit Company F at Fort Dix Monday for a final sendoff.

No deployment date for the unit has been released yet.