Christmas far from home ó thatís what a number of residents from the Forest Lake area will experience this year. For many it is military duty in Iraq where 140,000 U.S. Armed Services personnel are engaged in combat and support operations as efforts continue to establish a stable democracy in Iraq.

The newspaper has spent several weeks communicating with two Forest Lake residents who wonít be home for the holidays in 2006. This Christmas will find twin brothers and Army Specialists Ryan and Aaron Schmidt, 21, on duty in the desert.

The Schmidt brothers are 2004 graduates of Forest Lake High School. They keep track of affairs at home through mail, phone calls, e-mail and the Forest Lake Times web site (www.forestlaketimes.com).

This week the brothers write directly to readers with combined letters from Iraq as they respond to a series of general questions submitted by the newspaper. As we enjoy our Christmas celebrations this week, take a moment to remember the young people like the Schmidts who are in the service of our country. ó Cliff Buchan, News Editor

What will Christmas be like for you this year?

The first thing we would like to say is thanks to all who support this cause, and a special thanks to Paulette Smith and all the other volunteers who made the cookie drive happen, as well as for the rest of the volunteers who put in their extra time to help bring the soldiers over here, some happiness.

Christmas this year is going to be quite different. In past years we would have Christmas on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day we would do other things with the family such as relax, watch movies, or for Aaron and I, we would go tearing around the yard on snowmobiles.

It is hard because not only did we spend the last two Thanksgivings away from home, but we did get to come home for 10 days in 2005 for Christmas and New Years. This year we will spend all the holidays away from home and loved ones.

Thanksgiving was a little tough because we spent it on the road all over Iraq like it was just another day. We would have the Schmidt family Christmas the weekend before. We will miss the Christmas morning breakfast followed by church. My dad got married about four and a half years ago and since then, we would have Christmas at our grandparentís house, on our step momís side of the family.

If Aaron and I could, we would try to be every place we possibly could be. My parents are divorced so that means a lot of running around between the families on the holidays. We would spend Christmas with our girlfriends and we would go see our mother Darlene in Spring Lake Park. We would both be there on the same day but at different times. We would meet at dadsí house sometimes as one was leaving to go to another Christmas. We would finally meet together with our girlfriends at Grandma and Grandpaís house.

The one thing we will never miss about this place is all the power outages causing major headaches and frustration when you are trying to do things. IE power goes out......computer screen shuts off or goes blank causing me to have to restart my computer for it to run in battery mode. We miss the ability to be responsible for ourselves, and not having to answer to any one but ourselves.

In the Army you have a rank structure. NCOs (parents) telling you what you can and canít do. Lower ranks (kids) making decisions because they are old enough to make their own choices, only to have the NCOs say before you do any thing you have to clear it through me first.

The military did not train kids to do what it is that we do. They trained young men. The biggest thing Aaron will miss is getting to spend time with his daughter, born on June 18th, 2006 (Fathers Day).

Will there be holiday duty?

We are sure you have herd the song by Toby Keith, ìAmerican Soldier.î If not I would suggest listening to it.

We work on the weekends and all night long, and yes we work straight through the holidays as if it is just another day in history.

We celebrate the holidays by memory. The care packages that we get from different organizations help ease the burden of being so far away from home at this time of the year.

Friends ask how our weekends were and we always come back with ìWhat weekend, I didnít even know we had weekends?î The war doesnít stop because of a holiday or weekend and they are quite shocked when we tell them we donít have weekends off.

Yes the holidays come but we get through it with our families here fighting with us IE ìBrothers In Armsî

Chances are.... we will be driving on Christmas as well.

Talk about your tour so far

Our unit is still intact but as far as our brigade goes, we have suffered some losses. Some of them are close to friends in our platoon.

We have seen a little boy being carried to the base by his parents because he was shot by Army soldiers from a helicopter. The soldiers had no clue what they had done. The child did survive so that is a good thing.

We have seen what happens when you get hit by an IED (improvised explosive device). There are so many things that are chilling to the bone that make you realize just how bad it is and just how much worse it could be here.

We have a couple buddies that are stationed in Baghdad that are from our home unit. They are Army SPC, Stephen Major and SPC, John Kasper. Both are from Forest Lake.

They see things on a daily basis but adapt to them and overcome like the rest of us.

Talk about your active duty; Is Iraq what you expected?

At first when we were activated, it was a big life style change. We got to our training sight early in the morning and still had to get up the next day.

We would wake up in a tent with 20 other soldiers. Looking around, we concluded that this was going to be a long deployment.

We would get up before the sun came up and start our day with physical training about five days a week. From the time we started our training up to the time we deployed and even on up to now, everything has changed.

Aaron and I are not the same people we used to be. Living in a combat zone especially, will change a man, hopefully for the better and sometimes for the worse. You never know what to expect until you get there.

Iraq is nothing like we pictured it to be. In the summer it gets extremely hot (130-140 degrees) for about 20 or so days. The average temp hangs around 80 to 120 in the summer months.

In the winter the low is about 25 degrees. Iraq is a lot like Minnesota, just not as cold and a lot hotter in the summer.

Give us a glimpse of what life is like for a soldier in Iraq

Right now we are doing convoy missions so that is pretty stressing. We canít go in to much detail on that besides we run the roads risking our lives for people we donít even know, or speak their language for that matter.

Other missions we have done require a lot of interaction with the Arabic population. We, as well as all the other soldiers we work with, have had a lot of positive interaction with this culture.

We do hear a lot of small arms fire between the rival groups. Not on a regular basis though. Our assignment place is kind of in the middle of them. We canít say exactly where.

For the most part though these people are just like us. They work to support their families by agriculture and farming. Where we are, the Iraqi population wants us here because we are their main source of revenue and they know that if they do something stupid that they will be cut off so... they walk a straight and narrow.

Not all Iraqi nationals are bad. Most of them are just like we are. They ask about our families and send their prayers because they know what strain they are going through.

Talk about your life in the military and future plans

Our unit is compiled of a few different units reaching across the state of Minnesota. We all share the same job class and are all in the same brigade. The soldiers in the unit were selected based on whether or not you were deployed in the past. So our company is made up of three or four different companies.

We have been in the service for just over four years now and hold the rank of Specialist E-4. We have been in since we were 17 years of age. We will be almost 22 upon coming back home. Both of us joined based on college. When 9-11 happened, that view changed and it was more of it being a time to put boot to ass for our country.

Being part of this team that is called the Army has been a big eye opener for just how bad life could be and how much the average person takes for granted.

College will be the first priority after we come home and take a break from having to do something. More so after what we do what we want. We will come back home to a normal civilian lifestyle, having to go to work.

Our dad, Bob Schmidt. wrestled at 112 pounds for Forest Lake High School and was a state champion in 1977. Like father like son, we wrestled under Bob Dettmer and his coaching staff.

Our dad has six brothers who graduated from Forest Lake High School at different times. Many of them were also wrestlers.

We canít tell in detail but we will be coming home pretty soon, perhaps in the next few months.

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