Troops find festival in memories

US Army Sergeant Robin Cameron stood guard outside the gate to a once opulent Iraqi shopping mall that now serves as a small US military outpost trying not to think about what he was missing with his family on Christmas.

"It's just another day in Iraq," he said, waving through a convoy of armored vehicles heading out to patrol Baghdad's Mansur neighborhood, an area once home to Saddam Hussein's favored officers that later became an insurgent stronghold known for its deadly attacks on American troops.

On Christmas Day, there were about 146,000 US troops serving in Iraq, and on large bases and small outposts across the country, the holiday was marked by Americans with special meals and chapel services.