(Columbia) - The largest deployment of South Carolina National Guard soldiers since World War Two requires a big going-away ceremony, so Williams-Brice stadium in Columbia will be a parade ground instead of a football stadium Saturday. The send-off is for 1,800 members of the 218th Brigade Combat Team. 1,600 members are from all across South Carolina and the other 200 are from other states.

"Morale is sky-high right now," says Col. Greg Batts, Deputy Brigade Commander. "Everybody's excited about the opportunity to serve. I mean, that's what we signed up for."

Some of the soldiers will leave Monday for about 100 days of training at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. Others will follow in mid-February. A few of them will be trained at Fort Riley in Kansas. They're all headed to Afghanistan for a one-year deployment.

Col. Batts says the South Carolina soldiers will train and mentor members of the Afghan Army and police force.
"We have soldiers who are computer experts and that are business owners and they're police officers and medical people and school administrators," he says. "We're from all walks of life. We're not just soldiers. So when you're going in to try to win hearts and minds it's a great advantage to our nation to have the National Guard performing a mission like this, as opposed to just the regular Army."

Gov. Mark Sanford says the loss of 1,800 National Guardsmen for this year's hurricane season should not be a problem. "You've got in excess of 5,000 troops in this state, so 1,800 is big, but I think that for almost any contingency out there we're still well-covered from the standpoint of Guard."

Col. Batts says the departure ceremony is an important way for the community to show how much it values the soldiers and their mission.