CUMBERLAND — Jessica Schultz seems a bit more composed, and a bit more compassionate, than the average 12-year-old.

And while a natural character trait might be part of the equation, so must be life’s circumstances. Jessica, a sixth-grade student at Frankfort Middle School, is preparing for her father’s second combat deployment.

Jesse Schultz is a sergeant with the 372nd Military Police Company with the U.S. Army Reserve. Schultz is a combat medic and a military policeman. The unit, which has more than doubled in size in recent months in order to be combat ready, is expected to deploy to Iraq.

But as Jessica and her mother, Michele Schultz, said Tuesday during a presentation before the Cumberland Rotary at the Holiday Inn, that change is the only thing that’s certain — whether soldiers will go to Iraq or Afghanistan, or deploy in April or October or sometime in between remains to be seen.

All those changes, Jessica said, are more easily discussed with friends who also have parents in the 372nd.

“I talk with friends whose dads also are in the military,” Jessica said. “They understand what I’m going through.”

As for her father, who has been with the unit since 1992, “he’s going to be a medic” while deployed.

“I hope that he’s OK,” Jessica said.

Michele said now that friends and family members of the unit, whose members stretch from Altoona, Pa., to Morgantown, W.Va., Frederick, Hagerstown and Winchester, Va. — even New York and Philadelphia — they simply want the waiting to stop.

“It sounds awful,” said Schultz, the 372nd’s Family Readiness Group leader. The mind-set of families now seems to be “just hurry up and leave ... so you can get back.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, nearly all of the 170 members of the 372nd Military Police Company will mobilize and travel to Fort Dix, N.J., for predeployment training for about eight weeks. In late May, soldiers will return home for a four-day period before shipping out for their overseas destination. Until recently, the unit had just 78 members, but the military has worked to strengthen the unit to be combat ready.

Schultz said during that time of deployment, which could last between 12 and 18 months, it takes the entire community to help families manage stress levels and new stress factors. Spouses of the deployed will become the primary care givers and be responsible for balancing the checkbook, making sure the children get to school and various extracurricular activities and ensuring the car is mechanically sound.

For single-parent soldiers, it can be even more difficult. Their children are left with other family members, sometimes neighbors, as each soldier is required to establish a family care plan in the event of deployments or other military needs.

Schultz explained to Rotarians, some of whom have family members overseas now or have loved ones in the local unit, that there will be a number of “Yellow Ribbon” events before and after deployment. The dates and locations could change as the unit’s orders vary, she said.

Schultz, a veteran family group member, said she values a strong partnership with the local community as well as the military’s chain of command in newcomer Lt. Frederick Wasser, unit commander, and 1st Sgt. David Twigg.

As soldiers are ensuring legal documents are completed, including powers of attorney and their wills, those staying at home are beginning to exert more control over their respective household’s daily routines. But all the preparation can’t truly have families ready for the day their family members leave.

“We have everything in order,” Schultz said of families in the unit. “I don’t know there is anything you can do to be ready.”

In anticipation of their return, Schultz also talked about the soldiers’ re-integration into civilian communities when their overseas mission is complete.

“Coming home is hard for the families and the soldiers,” she said. “Homecoming is as hard as the deployment. It’s very difficult coming back to civilian life.”

She asked Rotarians, many of whom are business owners and employ soldiers, to make an effort to understand a soldier’s situation.

For Jessica, her father’s military mission might be a difficult thing to fully comprehend. But his absence during her gymnastics practices and in the evenings while she plays her flute and steel drums will be noticed.

“He doesn’t play ... but he’ll sit there and listen to me,” Jessica said.

• Rotarian Becky McClarran, whose son Daniel was a member of the 372nd during the unit’s previous deployment in 2003, said she hopes to begin a new “Adopt-a-Soldier” program through which unit members can interact with a dedicated, friendly face from home. Those who choose to adopt a soldier can be anyone from the general public. More information will be announced as it becomes available.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.