It's the fourth time Chief Warrant Officer Archie Morgan is celebrating Christmas in Iraq but he is not complaining.
Morgan was part of the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003 and was deployed twice in the darkest years of the war when the insurgency raged in 2006 and 2007, and U.S. soldiers were dying almost daily from roadside bomb and mortar attacks.
"It's is a very different Christmas the fourth time in Iraq," said Morgan of St. Louis, Missouri, one of the 50,000 troops that will remain in Iraq throughout next year when the U.S. military will leave the country after eight years of war.
"It was full battle rattle, my first couple of Christmases," Morgan said. "It was rough, our weapons had to be armed and ready," he added. "This (Christmas) is great. I feel like I am at home."
Capt. Diana Crane, the first female chaplain who arrived to Iraq in April 2003, returned to the country last month for her second deployment.
Crane was among several dozen troops attending a Christmas Eve mass in a chapel in Camp Victory, an American military base just outside Baghdad.
Several religious services will take place in military bases across Iraq on Christmas Day — but for now, no big parties were planned and no important guests were expected to visit troops at the beginning of their final year in Iraq.
Although morale is high and the threat significantly lower as the U.S. troops head in the last year of service here, Crane says the emotional struggles troops face remain the same: loneliness and separation anxiety.
"They mostly talk about missing their families or martial issues they are dealing with," said Crane, of Portland, Oregon.
"It's about kids, wives and husbands," said Crane, adding that most who have served multiple tours in Iraq are "happy to be back and see progress that's been made."
"The fact that (Iraq) is starting to be a country on its own again," Crane said, "makes many realize that all the work and sacrifice has not been in vain."
Spc. Chrisy Adams, of Niagara Falls, New York, says her daughter turned 18 months when she headed for Iraq on Dec. 3, on her first tour of duty.
"It's a bit rough being away for her, but I hope to use a webcam and see here open all the presents," said Adams.
While this is the first Christmas away from home, she doesn't expect it to be the last while serving in the military overseas.
"I anticipate going to Afghanistan in the next five years," she said. "You just gotta prepare yourself."
The U.S. ended combat operations in Iraq at the end of August, reducing the number of troops from 170,000 in 2007 to 50,000. Of those who remain, most are training and assisting the Iraqi security force who well take full responsibility to protect the country after a full withdrawal of American forces by the end of 2011 as mandated in a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement.
