Roughly 450 members of the 2nd Battalion of the 222nd Field Artillery Utah National Guard hugged family members and friends in the park and ate hot dogs and hamburgers provided for the dinner by the city's Elks club.

The celebrated battalion, that distinguished itself during the Korean War and was last deployed during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, was called up in November and its troops have been training since then at Camp Shelby, Miss., and Fort Irwin, Calif.

After the dinner, troops boarded buses and were driven under red, white and blue bunting decorations strung across Main Street in their honor to the Centrum on the campus of Southern Utah University.

At the arena, Gov. Jon Huntsman, joined by wife Mary Kaye and daughters, Abbey and Maryanne, told the audience of about 1,500 residents that the hardest part of his job is sending off troops.

Huntsman said he swells with pride when shaking hands with the Utah troops.

"Sometimes it's hard to get out the words," said Huntsman of the encounters. "I just want to say thank you."

He said U.S. troops are fighting in Iraq because [the United States] is ''the one country in the world that can bring hope, freedom and prosperity.''

Troops also received thanks and words of encouragement from Maj. Gen. Brian Tarbet, adjutant general with the Utah National Guard and the unit's commander, Lt. Col. Richard Miller.

During the dinner in the park, 2nd Lt. Tyler Young shared potato salad and burgers with wife Kari and 21-month-old daughter McKenna.

"We have had a lot of training based on what was discovered by those who went before us," said Young. "They were the ones who had to deal with the unfamiliar."

He said the training was made realistic by Iraqis contracted by the military to help simulate conditions troops are likely to experience, including the use of interpreters and dealing with problems that could arise from entering an Iraqi village.

Kari Young's only criticism of the latest activation was about timing.

"We need them home longer than 10 days," she said of her husband's latest leave.

The troops have today to spend with their families and on Thursday they will load on buses in Cedar City, headed for McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and the flight to Kuwait, from where they will enter Iraq.

First Sgt. Rick Bonzo, who has been in the unit for 32 years, said the training has the troops prepared. "They've grown a lot in six months and will grow a lot more," Bonzo said.

For David Holm, a Cedar City police lieutenant, the worrying about his son, Jeremy, a staff sergeant in the 222nd, is about to begin.

"Regardless of how you feel about the war, you have to support the troops," said Holm. "These guys in the Triple Deuce [222nd] have a tradition to keep and that's coming home with all who left."

mhavnes@sltrib.com