Oregon Public Broadcasting

Another  Fort Lewis Army Stryker brigade is getting ready to deploy – this time to Afghanistan.

That means military families are preparing for a tough year apart.

At a deployment ceremony Friday, Zoila Graves watched from the bleachers as her husband’s brigade received a formal send-off.

Zoila Graves: “Mixed emotions. I’m happy that he’s doing this for the country. At the same time it’s sad that you do have to sacrifice a lot like your family and those things.”

Graves and her Army husband have a four month old daughter that he’ll be leaving behind.

Nearly 4000 Fort Lewis soldiers will deploy to Afghanistan. Later this year two more Stryker Brigades will head to Iraq.