NASHVILLE -- Hundreds of families, friends and well-wishers turned out Friday for departure ceremonies at Camp Shelby, Miss., for over 3,000 soldiers of the National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment.

The regiment is bound for Iraq, marking its second deployment to that country, the first coming in 2004. Governor Phil Bredesen and his wife, Andrea Conte, were at the military post Friday to see off the Tennesseans, just as they did five years ago. The governor told the assembled soldiers, “Nothing humbles me more than to serve as your Commander in Chief.”

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