By Edward Lee Pitts Military Affairs and Dorie Turner Staff Writer

Every Thanksgiving weekend, the Andrews family enjoys a traditional feast before trekking out to a nearby nursery to uproot a big, blue spruce Christmas trees.

But this year, Mary Andrews, 30, and her son, David, 2, will pick out a tree without the help of Lt. David Andrews, who is 7,000 miles away in the Kuwaiti desert with the 278 th Regimental Combat Team.

"We have lots of good memories during our holidays. It’s going to be a different one," Mrs. Andrews said. "I guess you could say half my heart is in (the Middle East) now. It’ll be difficult, but it’ll be good."

While sitting on his cot inside a tent in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert this week, Lt. Andrews, 35, said he would probably picture home more than a few times today.

"We are far away, but I know she is going to have a good time with her family, and that makes me happy," he said of his wife. As his family gathers at his in-laws’ house in North Carolina today, Lt. Andrews will be at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, preparing his company of soldiers for a dangerous, two-day convoy into Iraq in coming months. He will spend today getting his weapons and other gear ready for his yearlong deployment in Iraq along the Iran border.

Mrs. Andrews said the toughest part of the holidays will be making memories without her husband. The family pictures she so proudly shows guests will be missing a familiar face this year.

"We’re a team," she said. "We work together and do everything together."

Holidays in the Andrews family usually are filled with family hunting trips and banquets of food.

Mrs. Andrews said she is more worried about how her husband will handle the holidays away from his family.

"I’m more concerned about how he’s going to be," she said. "I find my substance in my faith and my walk in Christ. That is what has been my holding point as far as what’s held me together through all of this."

Lt. Andrews might have time to enjoy a Thanksgiving-style dinner at the camp’s mess hall, but he said he wouldn’t be too upset if his responsibility forced him to eat a military prepackaged MRE instead of fresh-roasted turkey.

"Even though it is Thanksgiving, I’ve got to make sure that every single soldier gets to Iraq safely in the coming weeks," he said. "That is the right thing to do."

Lt. Andrews said the absence from home would be eased because he is serving with his buddies.

"I’m sure there will be a time on Thursday where we talk about what our families are doing that day," he said. "It is the way to keep in touch with what’s happening."

Mrs. Andrews has formed a new family with the other wives of soldiers from the 278 th.

"We now are a family without men," she said. "A military family understands exactly what you’re going through. You don’t have to talk. Just the presence of them being there is comfort enough."

This weekend, she and several other wives are going to help each other decorate for Christmas. They will travel to each person’s house to hang twinkling lights and cherished ornaments on Christmas trees.

"It will help the holidays go by a little easier," she said.

Mrs. Andrews doesn’t let her son forget where his father is. "Daddy in Iraq," David says proudly. "Daddy at work."

He wears a shirt that says "My dad is in the Army" and pants printed with a blue fatigue pattern.

Lt. Andrews took David on a ride on the family’s tractor — the toddler’s favorite outdoor activity — just before leaving for the Middle East two weeks ago. During a brief phone conversation this week, Mrs. Andrews told her husband she would just get a pre-cut tree for the holidays and forego the family’s traditional tree cutting. "But I said, ‘No, you are going to do what we’ve done every year,’ " Lt. Andrews said, recalling the conversation while in Kuwait.

The couple met in college 12 years ago at Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., and married eight years ago.

Mrs. Andrews is used to her husband being gone for several weeks at a time for his National Guard duties, but the yearlong deployment is a massive adjustment, she said.

"It’s going to be a lifestyle change for both of us," she said. "But I believe our marriage and friendship will strengthen through this and will have new meaning."

The family celebrated the holidays before Lt. Andrews left, gathering for a huge send-off party at the family’s McMinn County home.

Lt. Andrews said having pictures of his wife and son on his laptop computer and enjoying the Christmas presents he got before he deployed will help him to endure the daily windblown sand storms and the frigid nights common at Camp Buehring. "This helps take away some of that frustration and depression that comes with the primitive conditions," he said.

E-mail Edward Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

E-mail Dorie Turner at dturner@timesfreepress.com

Story Copyright to Chattanooga Times Free press