At Kirkuk Airbase in northern Iraq, where she will spend Christmas and New Year's, Sgt. Cynthia Archibald keeps a patriotic stiff upper lip.

She learned from a past deployment to Afghanistan to make the most of the holidays with the family she has in a war zone — fellow soldiers — because she can't be with her actual family back home.

Archibald and friends plan an exchange of gifts purchased at the sprawling airbase's post exchange, and they expect to gather for Pizza Hut pizza on Christmas Eve.

Not exactly a holly, jolly Christmas.

"Everybody's in the same situation. Everybody misses their family and wishes they could be back home," the 25-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier said in a telephone interview last week.

"But they make the most of it and try to take some time to step back and be thankful for what we do have."

Her husband is far less positive about another year away, this time in Iraq, a mission with which he does not agree.

"The Afghanistan mission, it was much easier for me to wrap my mind around the concept of, well, she's not here, but at least she's doing something there," said Seth Kirchbaum, who got out of the Army in September. "This go-around, we've had fatalities very close to us. I've seen friends and family really nastily affected by the situation that didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out would have turned into this giant (mistake)."

TROOPS' STRESS RISING

Spending the holidays in a combat zone, away from family, is always difficult.

For many soldiers and their families, the separation this time bears the added wear and tear of repeated deployments, a greater loss of life, and uncertainty over the way ahead.

A record number of Hawai'i soldiers and Marines — nearly 9,000 — will welcome Ol' Saint Nick and ring in the New Year in Iraq with just a momentary pause amid constant apprehension.

Schofield soldiers are clustered around Tikrit, Mosul, Kirkuk and Hawija in northern Iraq, while Hawai'i Marines are serving in the Haditha area in the west. Thirty-two from their ranks have been killed since September.

Soldiers in Iraq are facing a greater exposure to some key traumatic events than in the past, the Washington Post reported, citing an Army survey of soldiers who were in Iraq in late 2005, including members of the Hawai'i National Guard's 29th Brigade Combat Team.

Seventy-six percent of soldiers surveyed said they knew someone who had been seriously injured or killed, an increase from several years ago, and 55 percent said a roadside bomb had gone off nearby.

U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq combat deployments were nearly 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, the Post reported. The top noncombat stressors were deployment length and family separation.

The holidays, a time of joy and togetherness for many families, often are just the opposite for deployed troops and their families.

LEANING ON FRIENDS

Col. C.J. Diebold, chief of the psychiatry department at Tripler Army Medical Center and one of the mental health professionals involved in the troop survey in Iraq, said the holidays for some people, wherever they are, can bring depression.

"And then if you add stressors like isolation from families and being in a stressful job — and certainly being in a combat theater is stressful — it's something that you need to monitor," he said.

Diebold said keeping up communication with families by phone and e-mail, both of which have improved in Iraq, is important to staying on an even keel.

Troops on repeat deployments, now in greater numbers in Iraq, also know from experience how to make the time away more palatable.

"I think having done it before, I know how important it is to be close with the people I work with and to really take care of each other and try to celebrate together," Cynthia Archibald, from Chicago, said from Iraq.

Her in-laws, friends and husband have all sent "big" care packages.

"And all the other soldiers are getting a lot, too, which is good," said the signals-intelligence analyst.

RELATIVES TO THE RESCUE

Spc. Junior Ioane, 22, from American Samoa, spent a year at Kirkuk Airbase as a Schofield soldier in 2004. Now he's back for another year that's not yet at the halfway mark.

His wife, Norma Faleafaga, spent that first year by herself in Hawai'i. She was going to Remington College at the time.

"When he left, it was only me, and I wanted to drop out of school and go back home. It was really hard," she said.

To help her through this deployment, a brother, a sister and 3-year-old niece from American Samoa, and a brother from California, came to stay with her in Makakilo.

Ioane, a clerk with the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion whose job does not take him off the base, says it doesn't seem fair being away for two full years now.

"I'm going to be gone for another Christmas, another birthday, another anniversary," he said.

But he also is quick to add that "the Army's been real good to me — even though I've been deployed." During the holidays, he said, he misses "family and food," but on Sundays "all the local boys get together and we have a lu'au."

He re-upped for five years in a combat zone, picking up $13,000 tax-free.

His unit already was told it probably would have to return to Iraq or Afghanistan in 2008, his wife said.

The family is trying to buy a house in Hawai'i.

"That's what he's thinking about," Faleafaga said. "He can stay in the Army and we can buy a house, but I want him to get out and get a regular job and work here and stay with me."

MISSING THEIR FATHER

Dolly Purdie, another spouse dealing with a deployment, didn't buy a Christmas tree this year.

Sgt. Kevin Purdie, 27, her husband, is back in Iraq this holiday season, as he was in 2004 when he was in Baghdad.

"We didn't feel like putting up everything," said Dolly Purdie, who lives on Schofield Barracks. "He's not here to help us celebrate."

She is buying Christmas presents for their children, Kevonte, 5; Kayala, 3; and Keyon'dre, 1, but Christmas isn't the same.

Her daughter Kayala's fourth birthday in July has become the big event to look forward to, because that's when Dad will be home, and it's a tangible date for her kids.

"You know, it's hard," Dolly Purdie said, "especially since the kids are older now. They ask about him and want him home. They always ask, 'When is he going to come home?' and I just tell them, 'He's still working.' "

Sgt. Purdie, 27, who's from Saint Pauls, N.C., works with radios, computers and signal equipment, and goes out on convoy missions about once every two weeks.

He hasn't had any close calls with roadside bombs.

"I've been lucky," said Purdie, who's also with the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion at Kirkuk Airbase.

He added that "you can't allow yourself to be depressed (during the holidays). This is the career I chose, and I'm here to help the people of Iraq."

Dolly Purdie, who previously was in the military, sees the stress on base that repeated deployments can cause.

"Some families, I know it's a problem for them. (Soldiers) come back and they're not the same person," she said. "A few close friends of mine are going through separations because they've been through back-to-back deployments."

Tripler's Diebold said the Army has realized the deployment cycle doesn't begin and end with soldiers going into a theater or coming out, and counseling and informational briefings on adjusting are provided at both ends.

Dolly Purdie said unit family readiness groups do a good job of reaching out with information and activities, including a recent Christmas party at Helemano Plantation and potluck party on Schofield Barracks.

Seth Kirchbaum agrees the Army "does its best to take care of families." But he also said that around this time of year, for military families coping with deployments, "it's particularly tough. We all expect to be around friends and families during the holidays. It's by far the hardest time of the year."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.