Troops Get Special Holiday Messages From Home

CAMP PENDLETON —  Nine-year-old Chase Walker had a message Saturday for her stepfather, Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Curry.

“I hope you come back safe and soon,” she said into the camera.

It’s a lesson that children in Navy and Marine Corps families learn early: Their parents leave home for long periods and go places that are highly dangerous.

And so it wasn’t unusual to find a mixture of love and trepidation in the taped Christmas messages made Saturday by family members of troops deployed at bases in Iraq and on ships bound for the Persian Gulf.

“Please come home soon and we miss you and love you and don’t want you to get hurt,” said Jessie Gulbrandsen, 6, whose father, Marine Maj. Paul Gulbrandsen, is stationed in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi.

Angela Gulbrandsen said she and her husband decided that Jessie is old enough to begin learning about the risks of her father’s profession.

“We want to be open with her,” she said. “She’s a smart little girl. We’d rather she learned it from us than from somebody else.”

As the war in Iraq drags into its second year -- and casualties mount -- private groups and military organizations are making numerous efforts to bolster the morale of troops in the war zone and families left behind.

The taping of messages from Marine and Navy families to be sent over the Internet was the work of the base credit union, Pacific Marine Credit Union; the corporate credit union affiliated with Pacific Marine, WesCorp; and a webcast technology firm, CIA Studios.

Dozens of families took advantage of the free offer. Military personnel were e-mailed a password to allow them access to a website with the messages.

Interest in the offer had spiked after President Bush’s speech on the base Tuesday. Organizers had thought one studio would be sufficient, but when the list of families grew rapidly late in the week, a second studio was arranged.

“It was just important that we tell him how proud we are of him and how much we miss him,” Barbara Lundy said after doing a message for her son, Cpl. Kenneth Lundy, based at Ramadi.

Dabbing tears from her eyes, she said, “I get very emotional about this.”

Holly Miguel decided that her message to her husband, Cpl. Elmer Miguel, would emphasize the post-deployment trip that the couple are planning to Mexico and then New York. “He wants to see the [World Trade Center] memorial,” she said. “He enlisted because of Sept. 11.”

Lundy and Miguel are riflemen in a frontline company. “They’re grunts,” Barbara Lundy said proudly. “In the midst of the muck.”

Family members sang holiday songs, recited poems, talked of presents purchased and of plans to meet with other family members for Christmas.

“This is our Christmas gift for Daddy in case he doesn’t get the one we mailed,” said Rose Marie Kimbell, whose husband, Sgt. Laurens Kimbell, is stationed outside Fallouja.

Their 3-year-old daughter, GraceLynne, was restive and sometimes downcast. “I’m sad,” she said. “Daddy’s gone.” She recited an original poem:

“My name is GraceLynne

My daddy is a Marine

He fights for his country

To protect little me.”

Lisa Miller, whose husband, Cpl. Daryl Miller, is stationed in Najaf, held up their 3-month-old daughter, Leyana, who was born after Miller left for Iraq.

Last year, Lisa Miller, who is in the Navy, was deployed in support of the Iraq war; this year was her husband’s turn.

“Hi, babe, I just want to introduce you to your baby, Leyana,” Miller said into the camera. “She needs her daddy.”