My dad is going to Baghdad

For 3 months and I'm so scared! He leaves on the 13th. He's had military training (I'm an Army brat); but he's a 55 year old man now and it's scary over there. He's going there for a construction project his company is working on, not the war, so at least he's not fighting, but it's still scary over there and he'll stick out like a sore thumb as an American. I can't stop crying. Why do they have to send my dad there? Why are they doing a project there? When I first heard of the possibility, I thought it was going to be a one or two week thing. (Like when he went to Haiti for a week.) Now, it's for sure and 3 months now.