For Guardsmen, Deployment Upends Christmas (repost)

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Oops, sorry about the dup...


Staff Sgt. Ryan Guinn, seen with wife Jennifer and daughter Kylee in Hamlet, N.C., and other soldiers in Company E of the 120th Combined Arms Battalion in the North Carolina National Guard's 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team are preparing for another tour of Iraq -- Guinn's third.

For Guardsmen, Deployment Upends Christmas

By Kevin Maurer and Mitch Weiss - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 25, 2008 9:54:03 EST

HAMLET, N.C. — It was still October when Jennifer Guinn hung her family’s stockings — six red ones with the owner’s name printed across each white cuff.

There was a Christmas wreath on the front door to greet Halloween trick-or-treaters, and the Guinns’ four kids helped trim the tree with sparkling white lights — two full months before Santa was due.

With her husband, Staff Sgt. Ryan Guinn, due to spend most of December training with his National Guard unit for an upcoming yearlong deployment to Iraq, celebrating the season as a family meant celebrating on the military’s timeline.

“We knew that once he left he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the tree for long,” Jennifer Guinn said. “He wanted time to be able to enjoy all the lights ... while he was here.”

For the 76 soldiers of E Company who will deploy to Iraq in April, and their families, this year’s Christmas is a holiday upended by pre-deployment training. Instead of spending time with family and friends, they practiced gunnery at Fort Stewart, Ga.

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_30th_deployment_christmas_122508/%2e