Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman says about 1,000 of the state's National Guard troops will help Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states recover from Hurricane Gustav.

Heineman says most of the guard members will leave on Wednesday.

Nearly 100 members of the 67th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade headquarters left Tuesday morning as an advance team.

The soldiers and airmen will join four helicopter crews that left Sunday and have been waiting in Mississippi.

Nebraska National Guard Col. Dave Peterson says, "Over the past several years we have lots of training, either from deployments or past experiences with natural disasters. We have the best soldiers and airmen in the nation, got em right here in Nebraska and that's why we're transporting them."

Joining the Army National Guard are members of the Air Force National Guard as wel. Lincoln's Katie Paden is fired up for her first deployment, "I'm excited, I'm nervous to be able to go help all these people. That's what I want to do and I'm excited to be able to get this opportunity."

Colonel Peterson says the convoy south could take the better part of two days...but it will be worth it, "I think it's a good thing and if you'd have seen the smiles on our troops this morning...I think they're excited about going and perfoming in a mission they've trained for. It's a good thing to do a mission here without actually deploying to a combat zone."

Brig. Gen. Tim Kadavy, who commands Nebraska's National Guard, says more than 3,000 Guardsmen will remain in the state, available to help residents if the need were to arise.