A Long Time Gone

But shortly after Christmas, as friends and families counted the days until the planned March 28 homecoming, word came that the tour would be extended four months to support the effort to fortify Baghdad, a strategy designed to tip the balance against the insurgency.

News of the extension, which the families first heard about on television, was a rough blow. One wife likened it to nearing the end of a marathon and learning she would have to run eight more miles uphill. Another forgot that she had set her cellphone to ring on March 28, a cheerful reminder that her husband was homeward bound. When the alarm sounded, she called a friend and cursed: "Damn alarms."

A New Father, Far Away

In Thief River Falls, Alicia Tanner's father recently set up the crib for her baby, due July 12. Before the extension, that would have been a job for her husband, Sgt. Marshall Tanner. He petitioned to leave Iraq a few weeks early to attend the birth but has received no answer.

"I'm just hoping to get there," Marshall, 24, said by telephone from Iraq. "We were together in high school. Through basic training, my deployment to Bosnia. She's done a lot for me."

They were married in 2005, two months before he deployed; she bought a house while Bravo Company was in Fallujah, navigating complexities compounded by distance and war. It was a nightmare, she said. One misaddressed set of documents went to Iraq and back without finding Marshall.

On settlement day, the lenders made him call Thief River Falls. "He had to call the armory," Alicia said, "and the armory had to type up a paper saying he was alive."

When she learned she was pregnant, she told him over the phone.

"I try to get him involved, but it's hard because he's not here," said Alicia, 23. "I send him pictures of my belly, and we did a videoconference so he can see. That's about all I can do. Every time he gets home, I just think about the next time he's going to leave me."

Returning Means Starting Over

Sgt. 1st Class David Lymburner made his living hanging signs and awnings in Alexandria, Minn. He kept the business running during his Balkans deployment, which lasted about nine months, mostly during Minnesota's winter. But the long Iraq mission has been another story.

As his 2005 departure date neared, he realized it would not be fair to ask his 72-year-old father to take over, nor could he ask his workers to hang on without him. With no other options, he closed up shop. Other businesses moved in to sop up demand, meaning Lymburner will have to start over when he returns. He remains determined, but back problems that cut short his Iraq mission are another obstacle.

"I sell a product that when people need it, they are not willing to wait, so loyalty is hard to establish," Lymburner, 39, wrote in an e-mail from Fort Gordon, Ga., where he was recuperating from back surgery. "As far as finding new employees, I am sure it will take years to replace the quality of workers that I had to let go."

Farther north, not far from the Canadian border, Corey Stusynski found someone to run his rural Karlstad paint store while he was driving a Humvee in Iraq. Business has been steady, and the work is waiting for him. Friends also stepped into his teaching shoes at St. Edwards Catholic Church.