CALHOUN — The 108th Cavalry will play an important role in building a nation that can control its own destiny, the commander of the Georgia National Guard said Sunday.

Gen. Terry Nesbitt told members of Headquarters Troop of the 108th Cavalry that their mission to train the Afghan army and national police will be a vital one.

“You will see the Afghan army double in size, and you will help build the Afghan national police force from scratch,” Nesbitt said, speaking to the troops and their families during a send-off ceremony in Calhoun.

The Calhoun unit will join other units of the Georgia National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team for another month of intensive training at Camp Shelby, Miss., before it is deployed to Afghanistan for a year.

“These soldiers are well-trained and well ahead of where they were expected to be,” said Nesbitt, who grew up about five miles down Ga. 156 from the Calhoun armory and served in the 108th as a young reseSoldiers and their families and friends line up for lunch during a send off ceremony in Calhoun. (Jackie Seger / Rome News-Tribune)

rve officer.

Lt. Col. Randall Simmons, commander of the 108th Cavalry Squadron, said that after two months of intensive training — first at Fort McClellan, Ala., and then at Fort Polk, La. — the unit has outperformed all expectations.

“You have been assessed at a D 20 level,” Simmons told the soldiers, explaining that meant the unit was performing at the level of soldiers who have been in-country for 20 days.

“This is the best trained force I have ever served with,” he said.

Members of the Georgia Army National Guard unit and their families saw video highlights from the month they spent at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk. The troops were then released to their families until Tuesday, when they will head to Camp Shelby.

“We have been preparing for our upcoming mission for close to two years,” said Capt. Carlos Enriques, commander of Calhoun-based Headquarters Troop. “We have trained for the worst-case scenarios, but at the same time, we want to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. We must be kind and gentle.”

Despite the fact that the 108th Cavalry has spent the past two months training at various army posts, Enriques said that Sunday marked the unit’s first official day on active duty.

Enriques said the final month of training will be the most rigorous the unit has faced so far. “We will put it all together at Camp Shelby,” he said.

The 108th Cavalry will be among about 2,400 soldiers of the Georgia National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat team that will serve a one-year deployment to Afghanistan. The brigade’s soldiers will deploy overseas in waves between March and June.

The 108th Cavalry is made up of five units based across Northwest Georgia: Headquarters Troop in Calhoun, Alpha Troop in Rome, Bravo Troop in Canton, Charlie Troop in Dalton and Delta Co. in Cedartown.