Staff Sgt. James Lashley enjoys being able to walk to his job at the Suffolk National Guard Armory from his home just a few minutes away, but that won’t be the case for most of the next 14 months or so.

Lashley, who works full-time for the National Guard, is part of the 98-strong Troop B, 2nd Squadron, 183rd Cavalry, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, based in Suffolk. The troop departed Suffolk on Thursday for about three weeks of deployment preparation at Fort Pickett, near Blackstone. They then will return to their homes until Sept. 8, when their federal active duty officially starts.

“It’s a lot of ground work put in by the guys just to make sure we can get out the door,” said Lashley, whose daily job is to implement the commander’s training plan and generally “facilitate whatever needs to happen as far as unit readiness,” he said.

He’s been in the National Guard for more than 20 years after having joined at age 17, he said. His grandfather served in World War II, and he was inspired to serve, as well.

The Suffolk-based troop will be assigned to a Winchester-based battalion for deployment, along with units based in Woodstock and Leesburg. They will have an additional month of training at Fort Bliss, Texas, in September before arriving in Southwest Asia to perform security operations on what is expected to be a year-long deployment.

One thing Lashley isn’t looking forward to is the heat in Asia. It’s currently pushing 120 degrees Fahrenheit during the daytime, he said.

He’s leaving a wife and three children — ages 19, 9 and 2 — here in the States during the deployment, but he knows they’re well taken care of.

“We won’t leave here until everyone knows their families are taken care of,” he said. “That is the first priority.”

Master Sgt. Andrew Coyne, a public affairs specialist for the National Guard, said it is not yet certain where in Southwest Asia — an area that includes Kuwait and Qatar — the troops will be serving. They could be split among several areas, he added.

1st Lt. Matt Wright, the incoming commander, is a native of Charlottesville. He has been in the National Guard for six years, and this is his first deployment as commander.

“It’s a huge responsibility, but it’s a great opportunity as well,” he said. “I feel like this troop is well trained.” Since its last deployment — in 2011 to Iraq — the troop has been gearing up for this eventuality, he said.

The troop recently completed annual training where it “showed we were prepared to go forward again,” Wright said, and it didn’t take long for the call to come.

For some members, however, the call took a while to come. Staff Sgt. Ronald Devoe knew he was on standby, but he didn’t get the official call until Wednesday.

That suited his wife just fine, though, because she was nervous about her son, 21-year-old Spc. Jackson Fuller — Devoe’s stepson — going on his first deployment with Troop B. Devoe now will be able to protect him.

“It’s more like I’m protecting him,” Fuller joked on Thursday. They are from Chesapeake.

“When the opportunity came up for deployment together, it’s exciting,” Devoe said, though acknowledged his head is still spinning from all the preparations he had to make in less than 24 hours.

Outgoing commander, Lt. Col. Rusty McGuire, gave the soldiers a pep talk during a short ceremony at the armory on Thursday.

“Your neighbors, your pastors, your school teachers, they all sleep in peace tonight because of every one of you,” he said. “We have to leave our families behind. You now have to focus on each other for the next year. The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war.”