FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Organizers of a monthly storytelling gathering for the children of soldiers are planning to spend part of their next meeting making yellow ribbons. A doughnut shop owner who often donates his fried goods to troops who are shipping out has spent the last few days rushing a batch of hundreds.

And Jade Morales, a young military wife, welcomed the new year feeling deeply unsettled as her husband, so close to retirement from the United States Army, hurried off to an uncertain situation with far less warning than usual.

“We weren’t prepared for this,” said Ms. Morales, 20. “And so, it’s just been a whirlwind, especially because I’m not used to being alone.”

In a community long accustomed to the daily rhythms of military life, the flare-up in tensions between the United States and Iran in recent days reverberated immediately: At Fort Bragg, some 3,500 soldiers in the United States Army’s 82nd Airborne Division were ordered to the Middle East in one of the largest rapid deployments in decades. Regarded as the nation’s rapid-response force, the division is trained to take off in large numbers in as few as 18 hours after orders arrive.