TROOPS DON'T BATTLE ALONE IN TIMES OF WAR, FAMILIES FACE OWN CHALLENGES.

Byline: RICK COCA Valley News Writer

Campeau, Jones, Kassenborg, Nagasawa, Salazar, Schol: just a few of the many names of U.S. servicemen and women from the San Fernando Valley currently serving their country near and afar.

For every name, there is a family praying for a safe return, while often waging their own personal battles here at home.

When James Kassenborg, 28, of Burbank, a communications technician for the California Army National Guard, was sent to Iraq in early January 2005, he left behind his wife, Dena, and their two young children, Angelina, 5, and James Jr., 4.

Dena did her best to establish a daily schedule for the children in Kassenborg's absence. The children kissed their father's photograph every night before they went to sleep.

Still, they couldn't understand why their father was gone. James Jr. thought his mom might leave next.

``He wouldn't let me out of his sight for the first four months,'' Dena Kassenborg said. ``If I disappeared, he'd start crying, thinking I wasn't going to come back, too.''

Once, Dena took the kids to an Army family support group in Los Alamitos. Daughter Angelina thought her father had returned home.

``She got confused and went and hugged one of the Army guys, thinking it was Daddy,'' Dena said. ``She got scared when she realized it wasn't him.''

Dena, a senior clerk for Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks and Mortuaries, found herself missing the oddest things, such as washing her husband's clothes.

At night, once the children were asleep, Dena would watch the news for word on the war.

James Kassenborg enlisted in the Army right out of Burbank High School in 1995. He joined the Army National Guard four years later.

He said it has been a time-honored tradition in his family to join the military.

``My grandfather has been a great influence on me,'' Kassenborg said. ``He always instilled in me that it was a great honor to serve your country.''

Stationed just north of Kirkit, Iraq, Kassenborg worried about the effect his absence would have on his children.

``My biggest fear was my kids being away from Daddy and having separation anxiety,'' Kassenborg said.

Ten months after leaving for Iraq, Kassenborg returned home.

``It took them awhile to warm up to me,'' Kassenborg said of his children. ``They were a little apprehensive. My wife kept telling them `Daddy loves you.'''

Today, family life is back to normal as the kids alternately hug their father and use him as their personal jungle gym.

The positive treatment Kassenborg receives from his children isn't the only homecoming fear relieved. As the Iraq war has grown increasingly unpopular with the American people, in Kassenborg's opinion, that hasn't translated into Vietnam veteran-like treatment of returning soldiers.

``I am extremely proud that people have not taken that hostility out on us,'' Kassenborg said. ``I've never met anyone who has not treated us with respect. (I'm) proud of the way the American people have treated the soldiers.''

Someone who knows about the difference between the treatment veterans of the Vietnam War and recent conflicts received is Lionel ``John'' Campeau, of Reseda. Campeau, 58, served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. After a 17-year break, in 1986 he re-enlisted in the California Air National Guard, a reserve component of the Air Force. He served in the Persian Gulf War as well as in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in 2005, the conflict in Afghanistan.

``I know when I came back from Vietnam, we came through Travis (Air Force Base),'' Campeau said. ``You scurried as quick as you could to get into civilian clothes so nobody would recognize you.''

Campeau's son, Daniel, 28, works for the post office and told his father the number of packages being sent to American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq is mind-boggling.

Campeau works in the records division of the Los Angeles City Clerk's Office when he isn't deployed with the reserves, in which he serves as a master sergeant in the 146th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron.

Campeau is an airman. Whether there's a parade waiting for him at the end of his service is not important.

``I am a patriot and that's why I do what I do,'' Campeau said. ``I'm proud to be a U.S. citizen.''

Campeau makes little fuss about his service to his country, although he makes a good argument for the effort and strength it has required through the years for his wife, Ilena, 56, daughter Christina, 38, and son Daniel, 28.

When he was deployed in 1990 to the Middle East for the Gulf War, the city of Los Angeles only allowed 30 days of military service for its employees. After 30 days, they would only receive their military pay, which for Campeau meant a $6,000 drop in salary over his three-month tour there. (The city has since changed that policy).

``Anything that can go wrong, usually does,'' Campeau said of the problems that arise at home in a serviceman's absence.

His wife, Ilena, agrees.

With the decrease in pay, as well as a ``glitch'' in receiving her husband's salary, Ilena said she hid most of the problems she encountered from her husband and her children, including one time having to pick up some free cheese and beans from a food bank.

Ilena told few people of the problems she encountered. Still, somebody found out.

``I came home from work and went to get the mail, and in our mailbox was a white envelope and in it was nine $100 bills.''

Although she suspects she knows who sent it, she's still not sure. Ilena said she bonded with other military wives during her husband's Gulf War deployment. That and her family's closeness and deep faith brought them through that difficult time.

Their son Daniel said his father's absence during the Gulf War was particularly hard on him. He was a middle-school student at the time trying to be ``the man of the house.'' Studying for school proved difficult knowing his father was half a world away fighting in a war. He has empathy for young children today facing that same dilemma.

``How do you tell a young child that your daddy is in a war fighting?'' Daniel asked.

As tough as those early war experiences were on him personally, Daniel said his own maturation has been influenced heavily by his father's example.

``I look up to him as my hero,'' Daniel said.

Admiration can flow from father to son just as easily. Vietnam War veteran Robert Schol is about as proud as a father can be of the efforts of his son, Brent Schol, a staff sergeant first class in the Army. The younger Schol, 26, is a 1997 graduate of Granada Hills High School and an Iraq war veteran. He is currently at Fort Irwin, training his tank platoon -- 16 men in four tanks -- for its next deployment.

Although 16 soldiers from his forward operating base in Iraq have been killed, and a good friend of Schol's had his legs blown off there, Schol said he enjoys his job in the Army, in which he recently re-enlisted.

Schol is not married, so adjusting to family life back home isn't as difficult for him as it might be for others, he said. During reintegration training, he said, soldiers are told that they might face problems such as sleep deprivation, alcoholism and feelings of hostility toward wives and loved ones -- problems that can take a toll on families as well as the soldiers themselves.

For the 2,506 families of the American fighting men and women killed in Iraq, they would gladly deal with those problems if they could have their loved ones back -- something to remember on this Independence Day.

Brent Schol put it this way.

``I would say that the sacrifice that a (military) family has to make is the burden of losing a loved one,'' Schol said. ``Yeah, (the servicemen) volunteered, but you can go overseas and get killed.''

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Brent Schol, a 1997 graduate of Granada Hills High School and current Army staff sergeant first class and Iraq war veteran, enjoys some time with girlfriend, Julie Curtis of Sylmar at a military formal.

(2 -- color) Ilena Campeau and her son Daniel have relied on their faith and good sense whenever husband and father, Lionel John Campeau, has been deployed with the Air Force Reserve.

(3 -- color) Lionel John Campeau of Reseda served in conflicts from Vietnam in the 1960s to Afghanistan in 2005. He says the families of service-men and women often carry the heaviest burden when their loved ones are gone.

(4 -- color) Dena and James Kassenborg of Burbank know that since he re- enlisted in the California Army National Guard until 2011, James, an Iraq War veteran, can be deployed anywhere at any time. In the meantime, they'll continue to appreciate the small joys in life, like time with their children, James Jr. and Angelina.

Rick Coca/Valley News