Troops spend holidays away from home

? Sgt. Robert Turk escapes the often terrifying world around him in Iraq by recalling the reassuring one he knew back home in Palatine, Ill., the world of four brothers and two sisters, of waking early on Christmas for a trip to see his grandparents.

But the 27-year-old supply sergeant and many of the 130,000 other U.S. soldiers in Iraq found little chance to reminisce on Christmas Eve. Fearful of attacks, U.S. military officials put troops on heightened alert, beefed up patrols and canceled some Christmas festivities.

Officers at the Baghdad base of the 16th Engineers Battalion were still planning to serve Christmas meals today. A nighttime bonfire was still on the schedule too, and several hundred gifts from the Crossroads Community Church of Naperville, Ill., were to be handed out.

But the soccer matches and football games set for Christmas Day were canceled. And there was hardly a holiday mood in the air for troops whose duties had shifted from rebuilding Iraq’s infrastructure to the dangerous and grueling task of patrolling Baghdad’s streets.

In a dining room festooned with brightly colored holiday banners and a small Christmas tree, Col. Michael Baim of Corpus Christi, Texas, who was slightly injured several months ago by a roadside bomb, said he understood the lack of holiday spirit.

“The weather is cold. They are doing a lot of guard duty. And they are not as excited, so we’ll try to change it up,” he said.

First Lt. Rob McMahon, 24, recalled the “emptiness” that some troops felt when they first arrived months ago and suggested that now is a difficult time, too. Many of the troops are young, he said, and they are facing their first time away from home as well as their first military conflict.

He hoped many of the troops would be getting letters or packages from home.

“For me, it is the letters from friends,” he said. “The funny stories. The memories … just stories about normal living.”

CBS Late

U.S. soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Regiment, of the 4th Infantry Division, pray during a Christmas Eve service at Tikrit's military base, Iraq. Troops and Iraqi Christians attended church services throughout the country Wednesday, mostly under heavy security.

U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. Aaron Salzer, 27, St. Cloud, Minn., a reservist attached to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment based at Al Asad Airfield, puts an ornament on a Christmas tree in his barracks. His preparations Sunday were for the upcoming holidays he'd spend away from home.

U.S. soldiers of the HHC 30th Medical Brigade play football Christmas Eve at the U.S. headquarters compound, known as the green