For some members of the Maryland National Guard, Christmas came early this year.

That is, they celebrated it early because they are scheduled to leave tomorrow morning for a yearlong deployment. On Dec. 25, they could be in Kentucky, Afghanistan or the Middle East.

Regardless of where the Army sends them, they won't be able to tell their families where they are because of security considerations.

The Maryland National Guard's Special Operations Detachment - Joint Forces, a unit of nearly 30 members, oversees secretive missions.

That means they don't talk much about what they're going to do, only that their mission will start with a 12- to 14-hour bus ride from the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore to Fort Campbell, Ky. They don't like being photographed, and guard officials would not allow the members to use their last names.

J.R. from Montgomery County is the group's sergeant major. This Christmas, he will be at the right hand of his colonel, instead of his grandson's side while the 8-year-old opens presents.

"I'll be back for Thanksgiving," the 52-year-old said. Thanksgiving next year, that is, to eat his son's favorite rockfish dish.

In October, when J.R. learned he was shipping out, he gave his wife a fur-lined, black leather jacket. "It's not mink, but it's something like that."

It's her Christmas gift.

The unit that leaves tomorrow was assembled last month as part of the Army's first large special operations expansion in nearly 40 years, National Guard officials said.

Special operations forces are the troops that swoop into enemy territory for secret missions. They made quick strikes in Afghanistan, and are still being used there to protect the country's president and help maintain the new government.

The troops leaving tomorrow aren't the ones who carry out those missions. They plan them. "They're the best of the best as far as the Army goes," said Maryland National Guard spokesman Maj. Charles Kohler.

The unit is one of six of its kind in the Army.

Its mission is to support Operation Enduring Freedom, and as that effort turns its focus to the weapons inspections in Iraq, their likelihood of shipping to the Middle East increases.

Half of them are military intelligence experts and specialists in communications and other fields. The other half are senior officials. The unit has the command staff typical of a 2,000-person brigade, National Guard officials said.

Because of their rank, most members of the unit have been deployed before. They are experienced in the military and in the full-time jobs they are leaving.

"You've got well-established careers going here," J.R. said.

And well-established families.

Two weeks before their deployment, the soldiers and their families attended a daylong session about the impending separation, a program that may make it easier for the soldiers to focus on military matters.

"If they're out there with something else on their mind, they may not pick up what they're supposed to pick up, which could potentially put their life in danger," said Maryland National Guard Chaplain Sean Lee.

Such sessions have become frequent.

The National Guard may be known for serving one weekend a month and two weeks a year, but since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 2,000 of the Maryland National Guard's 8,000 members have been called to active duty, Kohler said.

This particular group faces two challenges that could make separation more difficult.

First, the holidays. This year, National Guard support workers told the troops, the festive times, instead of being special days for their families, will be the darkest.

That's when spouses are really missed, said Chief Trisch Garner, the state family program coordinator. "They can maybe get by with other family members the other days, but around the holidays people want to be with the people they are closest to."

The guard encourages families to stick to as many traditions as possible, Lee said.

Second, because of the unit's covert nature, members likely won't be able to tell relatives where they are or what they're doing on Christmas or any other day.

"That makes it extremely difficult," Garner said. "That allows people's minds to go in directions that may be the wrong direction."

The last time J.R. deployed on a yearlong mission was 1971. He was a freshman at East Texas State University and he wanted to be a marine biologist.

But he couldn't pass chemistry. So he lost his student deferment and was drafted.

"People say patriotism," he joked at the armory this week. "It was chemistry."

He remembers that it was early February when his father took him to the Dallas airport to fly to Fort Lewis, Wash., and then to Vietnam.

"There was hugging and kissing, and then I went," J.R. said. "Mom cried."

He returned a year later, changed his major to business and has become a security specialist at the U.S. Department of Energy.

This time he's leaving a wife of 17 years; three stepchildren in their 30s, all of whom live in Maryland; and a 21-year-old son who attends community college in Florida. Typically for Christmas, J.R. exercises the privileges that make grandparenthood special. He and his wife pick a child's house and visit.

He'll miss that, he says.

Others will miss their routines, such as watching the television show 24, they said.

The soldiers said it's tougher on spouses than on them. When they return, they pick up the calendar as if it's one day after they left. For spouses and relatives, of course, it has been a year.

By next holiday season, J.R. expects his three youngest grandchildren - who are now between the ages of 1 and 2 - will be old enough to rip open gifts.

"I'll be back for that," he said.

And to eat rockfish.