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4 brothers may serve simultaneously in Iraq

HOLLIDAY, Mo. — If Joyce Stahlschmidt’s four sons meet again soon, it will likely be in Iraq.

Four of the 11 children from the Missouri family are in the military. Daniel, a private first class with the 1st Infantry Division, is already serving in Iraq. Joshua and Peter will arrive within the next two months. Samuel is expected to be deployed by December.

“As a mom, I hate it,” Joyce Stahlschmidt told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “But this is the choice they made. ... I’d love to say don’t send them all, but who wants their mommy to say that?”

The Stahlschmidts were living in St. Charles in 2000 when the family decided to opt for a more simple life in rural Missouri, purchasing a 33-acre farm near Holliday. But farming didn’t come easy, and the family struggled financially.

The brothers also didn’t take to country life and, with good jobs hard to come by, began opting for the military.

“I think the deciding factor was, it seemed like the right thing to do,” Peter said.

Over their father’s objections, Peter and Joshua joined just after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Dave Stahlschmidt saw conflicts between serving in combat and the Christian faith he instilled in them.

“I didn’t like it,” he said. “We debated. We fought about it. But they made their decision.”

Peter said his mother worried but was encouraging. Both parents, who were recently divorced, said they don’t oppose the war in Iraq but don’t quite grasp the reasons for it.

Daniel, 20, is the youngest of the four soldier brothers, intense and idealistic, according to his mother. Samuel, 22, is a practical joker who once considered becoming an actor. He is currently stationed at Fort Carson, Colo.

Peter, 26, is a welder and history buff who has talked about becoming a professor after his military service. He is scheduled to leave Fort Bragg, N.C., for Iraq in early June.

“I don’t see much point of being in the military if you’re not deployed,” he told the newspaper in a phone interview.

Peter sent his mother a flag that waved at Camp Salerno in Afghanistan when he was stationed there in 2005. She keeps it tucked away in a box.

Joshua, 27, is probably the most reserved, an electrician who got married in December. He is now at Fort Dix, N.J.

It isn’t certain if all the deployments will overlap. Daniel is scheduled to return to the U.S. around the time Samuel is deployed, their mother said.

Military analyst Daniel Goure, of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., said it is becoming increasingly common for siblings to serve together. But the Stahlschmidt situation is still unusual, he said.

The Army had about 1.6 million soldiers in its active forces, Guard and Reserve at the end of the Cold War. It now has about half that, Goure said. As a result, the Army leans heavily on families with a long tradition of service.

Also, the demands of the Iraq war have led to multiple tours and extended deployments, increasing the chance of relatives serving together, he said.

“This is a reflection of how strained the Army is ... how much of its focus is on Iraq,” Goure said.