By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

BLACKSTONE -- After three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jake Ducharme, 33, knows all too well how it feels to be far away from home for the holidays.

The former sergeant with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Battalion out of Fort Bragg, N.C., spent his 2003 holidays in Iraq and theb returned overseas with his unit for tours in Afghanistan in 2005 and again last year through this summer.
The military does its best to make the holidays special for the troops but that effort can only go so far in a foreign country and war zone, according to Ducharme.
“They try to make it the best they can over there, but it’s really hard to get into the spirit when you are away in the service,” he said.
It’s especially hard on troops with families and children back home, and that’s why Ducharme has been looking forward to staying put in Blackstone for this holiday season.
“It feels good,” Ducharme said as Thanksgiving arrived and he could also look ahead to spending Christmas with his wife, Sway, and sons, Dustin, 12, Nason, 8, and Sebastian, 2.
“I’ve actually missed three Thanksgivings and three Christmas holidays,” he said.
The soldier has transferred over to the Massachusetts Army National Guard and hopes to be able to spend many more holidays at home in the future. He is currently looking to join a fire department for a job in civilian life.
During his tours of duty, Ducharme, a graduate of Blackstone-Millville Regional High School, spent time with Ranger units out beyond forward operating bases where the troops would increase local security while developing municipal facilities and community services.
On those assignments, smaller, pre-cooked Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners would be flown to the troops by helicopter and served right from their insulated containers.
When he was assigned to a forward operating base, the troops gained the benefit of a full mess hall facility capable of putting out a full-course holiday dinner with all of the fixings.
“It was as good as Army food can be,” Ducharme said while recalling the assortment of turkey and ham dinners he and his fellow soldiers were served.
The meals did become events for the troops and they would often find the Battalion or Company commanders behind the serving lines doling out the meal with the regular help.
“They make the best of it over there. In a way, they are your family,” he said.
The service also encourages the troops to stay in contact with their families back at home, and Ducharme said he was able to be on the telephone last year listening as his children opened their gifts for Christmas. It wasn’t like being there, but it was the closest he could come to that.
There was also always the knowledge that the soldiers were in a war zone and had to be on their guard at all times. Units Ducharme served with saw their share of improvised explosive devices while on patrol and his units suffered losses during his tours.
There was also beauty to the landscape in Afghanistan, where at times the stars seemed brighter in the clean and crisp night sky. Ducharme found it remarkable that there would be no sound at times, no traffic, no bustle of city life, but even then safety would always be in
mind. “Obviously you knew you were more at risk there than here,” he said.
Ducharme’s father, Larry Ducharme of Woonsocket, also thought of those risks while his son was away and has felt a sense of relief since he returned home.
Larry Ducharme lost his older brother, Richard Ducharme, to the Vietnam War when he was just 12 in 1967 and that loss was on his mind at times when his son served overseas.
Richard had been scheduled to come home in November that year but died on October 2 in South Vietnam.
“It was tough on my mother all those years after he was killed,” Ducharme remembered. “And it stuck in my mind when Jake went over there.”
His son decided he had to do something after September 11, and Ducharme said he understood that decision. It helped the father to put his faith in the training his son received before he left and the fellow soldiers he served with while there.
“I just felt he was in good hands and well-trained,” he said.
Jake planned to have Thanksgiving dinner with his family in Blackstone and his father was going to stop by afterwards.
“It will be nice for the first time in several years and it will be nice for Christmas too,” he said of having his son back home.