Lujan spends two Christmases overseas

Scott Lujan of Washington has been in the military for over 20 years. He has spent two Christmases overseas ? his first full year and his most recent in 2010. Lujan?s first Christmas abroad came in 1989 when he was stationed in South Korea. His second came when he worked as a signal officer in Afghanistan this past year.

Lujan grew up in Eldora, a town of about 3,000 in north central Iowa. He enlisted in the Army in 1988 at the age of 20, partly because he wanted money for school and partly to experience something new and exciting.

?I wanted to get away from my small town,? he said.

Lujan served as a medic with the 109

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Medical Battalion from Iowa City. He was deployed to Camp Mobile in Dongducheon, South Korea in 1989. Lujan said there were special meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas. For Christmas, a group of South Korean orphans visited the soldiers, who had purchased gifts for them.

Even with the big meal and the exchange of gifts, it wasn?t the same as Christmas in Iowa.

?I still felt homesick,? Lujan said. ?It was hard. I was 21 at the time, so I was still missing my family. Those were the days before the Internet. We could call home, but it was extremely expensive, perhaps $1 per minute or more. On our salary, we couldn?t afford to call very often.?

He said he could send as many letters as he wanted, which reached the States in one to two weeks.

Lujan has spent most of his military career in the U.S. He is now in the National Guard and is no longer a medic but rather a signal officer, which means he is responsible for all forms of communication on a base. In October 2010, Lujan deployed with the 133

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Infantry to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Mehtar Lam in Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan.

?My realm of responsibility was communication, both secret and non-secret,? he said. ?Everything you can talk on, from radios to telephones to computers, was my responsibility. A team of 15 soldiers assisted me. They did all the work but I was the one held accountable for it.?

Lujan said Laghman Province experienced a great deal of fighting and that it was not safe to leave the base.

?When you left the base, you were in harm?s way,? he said. ?Our FOB would get attacked, but it didn?t happen daily or weekly. We would be attacked by rockets, mortars, small arms fire, you name it. Most of the time no one would ever get hurt because of the drills we did.?

Lujan said he feared for his safety when he left the FOB to visit smaller bases nearby called Combat Outposts (COPs). He had to visit the COPs occasionally to inspect their equipment. He said the Combat Outposts were attacked more often than the FOBs because the COPs had fewer soldiers ? perhaps 100 compared to 700 on a FOB ? and were therefore believed to be easier targets.

Lujan?s unit continued its operations through Christmas, although it did take time to celebrate the holiday. The local chaplain put on a religious ceremony and soldiers on the base exchanged gifts. The troops ate a Christmas meal and the base was adorned with Christmas decorations.

Lujan has a wife, Katie, and daughter, Isabella, who is now 4 ½ years old. He and Katie have been married nine years and 2010 was the first year they had to spend Christmas apart. However, modern technology allowed them not just to speak that day but to see each other, too, using Skype.

?It was a small thing, but it meant so much to see my wife and daughter,? he said. ?Technology has definitely made it easier to keep in touch with your family. When I wanted to Skype my daughter, I got up at 5:30 a.m. and went on Skype at 6 a.m. Afghanistan is 14.5 hours ahead of Iowa, so that was right before my daughter?s bedtime.?

The Lujans also communicated through e-mail and even text messages and cell phone calls.

?I purchased a card for my cell phone that cost about 15 cents per minute,? he said. ?That is very inexpensive. The cell phone towers were poor in Afghanistan but the base I was on had a cell phone tower less than half a mile away.?

Lujan said it was hard to get through certain days of the year such as Valentine?s Day when everyone wanted to use their cell phone.

Fortunately for the Lujans, Scott was able to take his leave of absence the week after Christmas. He was away from the base for 23 days but spent only 15 of those in Iowa because he had to spend eight days in transit.