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MOUNT PLEASANT, IOWA -- The gymnasium at Mount Pleasant Community High School was filled to capacity on Friday morning.

Family, friends and community members gathered to bid "Farewell and Godspeed" to the 832nd Engineer Company of the Iowa Army National Guard.

A company of 120 soldiers, combined of Keokuk and Mount Pleasant, left for their mobilization station at Camp Shelby, Mississippi for additional training and preparation before departing for Afghanistan.

Major Randy Higginbotham, of the Iowa Army National Guard, echoed the reaction of the crowd...stating the ceremony on Friday was a "tear-jerker."

"They are designed to give closure and a break point, to let the family and the soldiers separate. It takes a ceremony. It's been a tradition in the military since the beginning of our nation. Most armies have done it forever because it's that visual that we all need to send our loved ones off," Major Higginbotham said.

Representatives for Senators Grassley (R-Iowa) and Harkin (D-Iowa), spokespersons for Congressman Loebsack (D-Iowa) and Governor Culver (D-Iowa) read greetings from the elected officials before the Guard's departure.

"Their mission is to assist in the rebuilding of [Afghanistan] and getting them on their feet. So it's a pretty big undertaking we're doing as Iowans," Major Higginbotham said.

He added that it is essential to remember those families on the home front.

"The community involvement while they're gone is another important piece. The family-readiness group, which is all the spouses, the loved ones, girlfriends, lovers, moms, dads, kids...they're still here. And the community has got to support them and they do," Major Higginbotham said.

And with the crowd waving American flags along the road outside of the Mount Pleasant Community High School, members of the Iowa Army National Guard departed by bus which was escorted by the Patriot Guard Riders.