(Joe Gromelski/Stars and Stripes)

Fayetteville, N.C., April 2009: Sgt. Billy Southern of C Company, 1/120th Combined Arms Battalion, walks toward the buses with his 4-year-old son, Jessie, and infant daughter, Mariacristina, following a deployment ceremony at Fort Bragg, N.C. It was the first deployment to Iraq for Southern.