Kirby Mary Mullenberg became Mrs. Curtis Zimmerman a scant two weeks ago. Now her husband is leaving for war in Iraq.

“At first I was thinking that his deployment would only be about three months, like in the Air Force,” said Kirby Zimmerman, 20, who is in the Kansas University Air Force ROTC. “But when I found out it could even be a year, it made it a little harder.”

Kansas Army National Guard Spc. Curtis Zimmerman, 25, has lived in Lawrence his whole life. Now, with 500 fellow guardsmen from the Guard’s 2nd Battalion, 137th Infantry unit, he is headed for overseas duty near Baghdad.

“We’ve just got to be there to provide stability,” said Zimmerman, a 1998 Lawrence High School graduate.

The deployment was announced Monday. There will be a public goodbye ceremony at 1 p.m. today in Manhattan at Kansas State University’s Bramlage Coliseum. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will be among those bidding the troops farewell.

The battalion’s 120-member Company A is based in Lawrence. Battalion headquarters are in Kansas City, Kan., with another company based in Wichita. About half of the Lawrence-based unit, including Zimmerman, spent time stationed in Germany in 2002, Maj. Roger Aeschliman said.

The unit will operate the Joint Visitors Bureau near Baghdad and provide security for high-level visitors entering Iraq. The 111th Engineer Battalion of the Texas Army National Guard currently runs the bureau, Aeschliman said. That Texas unit has experienced no casualties so far, according to the Army National Guard’s Web site.

When the Kansas battalion takes over, it will be the second from the state to operate the bureau after the 2nd Battalion, 130th Field Artillery of the Kansas Army National Guard unit. Spc. Don A. Clary, 21, Troy, and Staff Sgt. Clinton L. Wisdom, 39, Atchison, died Nov. 8 near Baghdad when they used their vehicle to stop a car – that exploded – from reaching a military official, according to the Kansas adjutant general’s department.

“It’s a place where people want you dead, but that’s why we train so hard,” said Spc. George Coleman, originally from Enid, Okla., and an employee of Best Buy in Lawrence.

Volunteers’ hearts

Company A’s members spent the past week packing and training for their Mideast mission. Tuesday they loaded gear at the Lawrence armory. By Wednesday they were at Fort Riley, training with weapons.

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Morale was high among the soldiers.

“We’re going to be focused on getting the job done so we can get home to our families,” Sgt. Joseph Kean, a 1990 LHS graduate, said Tuesday while preparing his gear.

“I joined the National Guard for college money- to be honest – and it turned into something I absolutely loved,” said Sgt. Brent Rounds, a former KU student from Rochester, Minn. “Where else can you go to do something like this? I volunteered because I thought it was the right thing to do.”

“What is that saying? ‘There’s nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer,'” said Sgt. Kristopher McDonald, a 1994 LHS graduate.

Kean, who works for Laird-Noller in Topeka, likened Iraq’s situation to the beginnings of American independence.

“Everybody’s got to be free, so we’ve got to be there helping them,” Kean said. “When somebody has the ability to do something, they have the responsibility to do something,”

“The Iraqis want to be free; they just don’t have the means to do it,” Coleman said.

Family, fears

Melanie Allerheiligen, of Topeka, thinks of the battalion as a family.

“They train together, so they become really close,” said Allerheiligen, wife of Sgt. Ryan Allerheiligen.

But some families are newer than others.

Kirby Zimmerman grew up in Montana and, as a KU senior, studies atmospheric science. She’s also on track to become a commissioned reserve officer in KU’s Air Force ROTC program.

Kirby Zimmerman said her military background has helped her prepare for the separation.

“Just with me being in the Air Force ROTC, it made it a lot easier for the both of us to accept his deployment. We both understand,” she said. “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. I’ll support him. I am a little worried about his safety.”

Curtis Zimmerman, meanwhile, hopes the deployment can help Iraq become more stable and democratic.

“If we finish the job, it will give the Iraqis and people of other countries an idea of what is possible with freedom,” he said.