When men and women of the armed forces are deployed overseas, their first instinct is survival, not leisure.  Their family and friends may send them care packages with items that remind them of home. But for some, what they miss most is playing music.

Members of the 178th infantry and their family members say goodbye as they prepare to deploy to Afghanistan.

Senator Lindsey Graham asked local National Guardsmen to be prepared, because he believes thousands of new troops will be requested for Afghanistan in a few weeks.

President Barack Obama plans to withdraw all U.S. combat forces from Iraq by the end of August 2010. But many of those troops will stay in the war zone throughout 2009.

Sending care packages to troops is often a special part of the holidays. However, for some students in Berkeley County they never knew what they would get in return.