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thedrifter
12-24-05, 08:55 AM
FRONT LINE: Mind is on job; heart is in Detroit
BY PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
December 24, 2005

Cpl. Jeremy Tolhurst has an artificial Christmas tree in his Marine unit's base in Fallujah, Iraq. It's a poor imitation of the fresh Michigan evergreen he and his family cut down every year, but he won't complain.

"It's good enough, what we've got out here," said Tolhurst, 21.

"Out here" is a prefabricated barracks on a dusty base, with plenty of camouflage netting over the top. It's a far cry from the homey bungalows in the southwest Detroit neighborhood where he grew up.

Christmas for the American forces in Iraq is a time of focus -- focusing on their jobs, on their fellow troops, focusing on just about anything except the fact that they're far from home.

"We're trying to make the best of what we have here," said Tolhurst, a 2003 graduate of Western International High School. "I don't want to necessarily say I'm enjoying it, but I'm making the best of it."

Tolhurst, with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., is just one of 150,000 American troops spending Christmas in Iraq. Like many of them, Tolhurst doesn't talk about being frightened or lonely. He just keeps doing his job, keeping the base's communications systems running.

"I think the holidays are a little tough, we're all family here anyway," Tolhurst said in a phone interview from Iraq this week. "We keep working and keep our minds off it a little bit. It's not that bad."

The best way to keep going is to keep your head down and stay busy.

That's especially true during the Christmas season, when it's easy to spend a lot of time thinking about other places to be -- like home.

"We try not to ignore it or anything," Tolhurst said, speaking of Christmas. "But it's more for everybody, support for each other."

Tolhurst remembers the family parties on Christmas Eve back home in Detroit. He has sent presents to his family, which includes his wife, parents and five brothers and sisters.

And the Marines in his unit are exchanging presents among themselves.

"We have a secret Santa thing, so we all have presents," Tolhurst said. They shop the base exchange for magazines, books, flashlights. "Anything pretty much we can get. Nothing too exotic or anything like that."

This is Tolhurst's third Christmas in Iraq, the second since he married his wife, Connie. She lives in Dearborn Heights and will spend Christmas Day with both of their families Sunday. But she's saving her husband's Christmas presents for when he gets home in February.

"I told him it just doesn't feel like Christmas without him," said Connie Tolhurst, 21. "It's just lonely."

Tolhurst's Christmas message to Americans at home is: Thank you.

"Just to thank them for the continued support, the care packages," Tolhurst said. "That helps out a lot because some people don't get packages at all."

Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at 586-469-4681 or pwalsh@freepress.com.

Ellie