Close to a dozen reservists from the Royal Regina Rifles will be deployed to Afghanistan by the end of October.

A large portion of the men and women who have volunteered for deployment are under the age of 25.

Warrant Officer Jeff Dickson, who served in Afghanistan in 2006, now helps prepare new soldiers for the field. He said many of the reservists are still teenagers, making it difficult to explain the reality of war to them.

"So it's kind of hard to look them in the eye and say, I'm glad they want to do this," Dickson said. "You really have to hammer home the point that it's a dangerous mission. But please be sure in your mind that this is exactly what you want to do."

Cpl. Jason Head, 24, has volunteered to join the fight in Afghanistan.

"It's a choice I made and I'll just go out there and do my job," Head told CBC News. "It was really hard to tell my mom. No parent wants to send their son and daughter to war."

Head is newly married with a one-month-old daughter and feels ready to serve.

"I wanted to step up to the plate 'cause they needed reserves to help out," he said.

The Canadian Forces said that for security reasons, the exact day of the soldiers' departure cannot be released to the public.

Maj. Tim Rubcich is a farmer and has been a reservist for more than 20 years. On this mission he will help train a few members of Afghanistan's army.

"It can be very rewarding," Rubcich said. "We're taking the Afghan artillery battery, which has very little training, and we are helping to train it so it can support its own security operations."

The Saskatchewan reservists will serve in Afghanistan until May 2010.