He was the logistics officer when the unit last deployed to Kosovo, in 2004, but said he gets few questions about his time there.

There’s already enough training and classes about Kosovo, a province of Serbia in the Balkans, and other soldiers might have better stories than a logistics officer anyway.

The soldiers will receive imminent-danger pay after the Department of Defense decided against reclassifying the deployment as a non-combat mission.

Battalion Cmdr. Mike Funk, who will lead the battalion in Kosovo, said the classification is a big deal, partly because of the $225 per month combat pay. But the biggest savings comes because the troops’ pay won’t be taxed at all. Funk said total savings depends on rank, but many soldiers will see an extra $1,000 or so a month.

The Pentagon decided to call Kosovo a combat mission, Funk said, because while Kosovo is now a relatively peaceful protectorate of the United Nations, independence could be imminent.

If that happens, the area’s Serb minority could rebel, while a lack of independence would surely displease the ethnic Albanians living there. The mission’s primary purpose is to keep the peace between those two groups, as well as other minorities.

The battalion’s history as First Minnesota began, Funk said, when Gov. Alexander Ramsey in 1861 offered it as the first unit to fight for the Union in the Civil War. A brutal stand at the battle of Gettysburg earned the battalion its motto: “to the last man.”

This will be the second deployment for Capt. Shawn Jensen, of Andover, who went to Iraq in 2003.

There, he did engineering work and experienced mortar attacks every other day or so. Kosovo will be different, but still potentially dangerous as he expects the unit to work against drug and weapons smugglers.

Al Glass, with the VFW, said 450 phone cards have been shipped to the training grounds at Camp Atterbury, Ind.

“So if they don’t call, it’s not my fault,” he joked.

On Wednesday, all 400 soldiers deploying for Kosovo will depart for Indiana. They will train until September, when they’ll go to Germany, then to Kosovo.

While there was grieving among families, the battalion’s commander, chaplain and others gave some advice.

“Soldiers, you’ve heard it before, but I’m gonna say it again: You need to do what’s right,” Cmdr. Funk said. “Remember, you represent the U.S., you represent Minnesota.”