MEDFORD - One of the soldiers in the 273rd Engineer Company lives right here in the Northwoods.

Newswatch 12's James Fillmore introduces us to Sgt. Andrew Schmidt and his family.

For 26-year-old Sgt. Andrew Schmidt of Phillips, becoming a member of the Army National Guard was something he knew he wanted to do since he was young.

Sgt. Schmidt says "I'm looking forward to the deployment getting to work with new people. I got to work with some of these guys for awhile now and it's a good group of guys to be going with."

This is Sgt. Schmidt's second tour of duty.

In 2003, Sgt. Schmidt went to Iraq for a little over a year in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and now he's heading back as part of the 273rd Engineer Company based out of Medford.

Sgt. Schmidt says, "I like being in the Army, so I was pretty excited when the opportunity came up to go again."

Sgt. Schmidt's parents say they are proud to call their son a soldier.

Bobbi Schmidt, Sgt. Schmidt's mother, says, "It'll be a long year. There's times when you're with people and all of a sudden you'll start thinking about him not being able to be there, and so it's long; a lot of sleepless nights sometimes, but we'll get through it."

Don Schmidt, Sgt. Schmidt's father, says, "You're always worried. It's a parents paragative you worry about your children it doesn't matter how old they are, and you try to protect them, but when they're over there you can't protect them, so you just worry about it and say a few more prayers."

Sgt Schmidt says, "It's hard, but they understand why I do it."

An understanding that is allowing Sgt. Andrew Schmidt to make a few more memories with his family before being deployed.

Sgt. Schmidt's mother says the community support really helps.

Sgt. Schmidt's father says he's looking forward to communicating with his son via the Internet.

Sgt. Schmidt says he gets two weeks of leave during his year-long deployment.