Six months ago, Troy Balkowitsch looked into a white veil at the woman with whom he'll spend the rest of his life.

Now, it's a hood he's looking at. Fort Hood, Texas. He'll be there for the next six months with a different family entirely.

Balkowitsch and the 22 other members of Bismarck's 112th Command Aviation Battalion will spend half a year in Texas preparing for a NATO peace-keeping mission in Bosnia. After training, the North Dakota Army National Guard unit will deploy to Bosnia for up to another year.

If you're keeping score, that's three times longer than Balkowitsch and his wife, Heather, have been married. They got the notice that he could be mobilized as they were building their new house.

"When you sign up for marriage, you sign up for life," Heather Balkowitsch said Monday at a farewell ceremony for the unit. "You always prepare yourself, knowing that it could happen."

The 112th will depart Wednesday in four Black Hawk helicopters. After training at Fort Hood, the unit will deploy to Bosnia, where it will provide support for the NATO mission. The 23 soldiers will use the Black Hawks to move personnel, supplies and other equipment within the country.

Troy Balkowitsch has been with the 112th for 13 years. He said the unit is like a family. His brother, Warrant Officer 1 Brandon Balkowitsch, is a pilot in the unit. Still, he said, being apart from his new bride will be difficult.

"The guys going over there are all pretty close," Troy Balkowitsch said. "We'll have to take it day-by-day, because that's about all you can do."

The unit's commander, Maj. David Hall, said the 112th has appreciated the support it's received during the last few months, since the alert for possible mobilization. More so, he said, the unit appreciates the extensive training it's gotten.

"The training we've received has well prepared us for this mission," Hall said. "We couldn't have asked for a better group of soldiers to be assembled."

The 112th shares in a flight-safety record of more than 100,000 accident-free hours, dating back to 1958. That mark is unprecedented across the country, Maj. Gen. Mike Haugen said.

"We have a history of safe operations in this state - in this nation - that is not matched by anyone," Haugen said. "… When we sent (Detachment 42) off to Afghanistan, there were a lot of jokes about their being a very mature group. They're, well, they're old. You look at this group, you see we have a much younger crowd. But they're not inexperienced."

The mobilization of the 112th pushes the number of North Dakota National Guard soldiers called up since Sept. 11, 2001, to more than 3,000. That's the highest number called up, according to the Guard, since 3,700 soldiers were mobilized for World War I.

"In this worldwide war on terror, it's amazing what our Guard has done," Gov. John Hoeven said at the sendoff ceremony. "… We've had a tremendous call on our troops. I think it's because they're outstanding."

(Reach Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tspilde@ndonline.com.)