IMMOKALEE, Fla.- The 856th Quartermaster Support Company based in Immokalee is headed to Afghanistan to help troops returning home.

The 40 servicemembers were honored in a ceremony at Seminole Casino Immokalee Monday morning.

They'll head to New Jersey by Thursday for training before leaving for Afghanistan.

Company Commander, Captain Justo Garcia, says they'll provide logistical support for the troops coming back home.

"As the war is winding down, there's actually a greater logistical need to bring back all the equipment we sent over there so we provide a lot of support for that," he says.

He says his crew is ready for the mission ahead. "Excited, anxious, not nervous but there's definitely anxiety. We've been training and planning for this for over a year."

The deployment is expected to last 9 months to a year.

This will be the first deployment for Sgt. Laroya Mitchell. She says the hardest part is leaving her 18-month-old son. "Just feeling like I'm missing things, teeth growing in, not being there to pick him up when he falls, not hearing him say new words. Just feeling like I'm missing things in his life, moments I'll never get back."

But she says it is worth it, to serve her country. "It's a big sacrifice, I love what I do, wearing my uniform. It makes me proud to know that I can do something for somebody else. It's gratifying at the end of the day when I go home and I'm tired, I feel accomplished, I feel like I'm doing something, not just making a paycheck."

1LT Ryan Berg is also heading out on his first deployment. The 24-year-old says he'll miss football season, and of course his family. "That's one of the most important things. It's good to have great soldiers going with me, but if I didn't have the family support back home, there'd be really no reason."