APPLETON, Wis. (AP) — Members of the Wisconsin National Guard say they've seen a surge in weddings as members prepare for the biggest overseas deployment since World War II.

While no has been keeping a tab, they say, anecdotally, it appears many members are getting hitched before leaving for Iraq.

One newlywed is 27-year-old Staff Sergeant Nathan Preder, who leaves today for Florida for pre-deployment training. He married his girlfriend of several years, the now Tera Preder, on Saturday in Manitowoc.

Preder says he probably would have proposed in October even without the deployment, but the wedding would have come later.

Fifty-seven-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Tim Donovan also recently got married. He says soldiers tend to want to formalize relationships before facing the difficulty of combat on the other side of the world.