SAN DIEGO -- Thousands of San Diego-based military could soon be headed to war after President Obama announced to the nation Tuesday night that he wants to boost our troop presence in Afghanistan.

The President's plan of attack includes sending 30,000 to 35,000 more American forces into Afghanistan over the next year on top of the 71,000 already there.

As many as 4,000 Marines are expected to be involved in the surge. Camp Pendleton estimates that over 10,000 Marines and sailors will be in Afghanistan by March.

San Diego also has a large national Guard and Reserve contingent who might be deployed as well.

The National Guard Armory in Kearny Mesa is home to 4,400 members. It's the largest Army brigade in the state, so, it's a safe bet they too will be part of this surge.

1st Batallion, 5th Marines gathered at Camp Pendleton last May to leave for Afghanistan. As a new surge gets ready, Retired Marine Bob Neal told 10News that, as far as his nephew who is in the military is concerned, "he wants to go. He wants to go to represent his country. He feels he has a lot of expertise in what he's doing and believes he has a lot to contribute to the younger Marines."

But with any deployment, it's always tougher on those left behind. With the new surge to Afghanistan comes new anxieties.

Paul Steffens of the Armed Forces YMCA said, ""There was one of the families getting counseling and related this: there was a boy was at school and a classmate asked, 'is your daddy coming home for Christmas?', 'yeah', 'well, my daddy's not.'"

It's one reason the Armed Forces started Operation Kid Comfort, where pictures of a deployed parent are woven into a quilt for the child to keep.

Naval base San Diego is also involved in helping children with parents who are deployed in an outreach program in the schools.

Mary Kirby of the Fleet And Family Support Center said, "Growing up it was weird to be the military kid with the ID, but now we're starting to see them connect either in the school or through other schools or online and -- in healthy ways -- support each other."

Helping children of deployed parents is also being done at the Family Readiness Center, as Guard and Reserve deal with more active duty call-ups.

National Guard spokesperson Maj. Kim Holman said, "They are being asked to deploy just after they get home. Some of these folks are coming home for a year or two and being asked to deploy for another year."

Members of the Guard unit in National City are already in Afghanistan. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, some 3,000 California Guard and Reserve have been deployed there. How many will get orders to go from here remains to be seen, but support groups throughout San Diego stand ready to help.