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Sgt Deborah Francis

Most families across Oxfordshire will be tucking into turkey and warming themselves by the fire this Christmas.

But for others the festive period will be spent patrolling the battle-scarred streets of Afghanistan and fighting the Taliban.

Territorial soldiers from the 7 Rifles, based at Slade Park Barracks in Headington, Oxford, will be thousands of miles away from home this Christmas. The troops from Salonika Company, based in Oxford and Reading, flew out to Afghanistan on a six-month tour of duty this autumn.

Among them was Rifleman Anthony Facciol who is serving in the Helmand province.

The 37-year-old from Oxford left his civilian work in the plating shop of W. Lucy in Thame this summer and is now a light machine-gun gunner.

As an ex-regular soldier, Rfn Facciol has undertaken tours of Northern Ireland and Belize.

So far he has been providing protection for Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan - home to about 2,500 British troops.

This has involved guarding the main gate, searching vehicles, patrolling the surrounding desert and providing protection for helicopter medical teams.

He now patrols the desert in armoured vehicles, providing top cover in the turret using a 7.62mm machine gun.

Back home in Oxford he lives with his girlfriend Annie Thompsonok. Rfn Facciol said: "She didn't want me to go but she has a lot of friends and family around her, which helps."

Also flying out in October was Sgt Deborah Francis from Wheatley - one of only three women in Afghanistan with the 7 Rifles.

She is responsible for the administration of every soldier within the unit. As well as pay and allowances, Sgt Francis, who is on her first operational tour, looks after the leave, manages the company office, processes official correspondence and helps organise welfare arrangements.

Sgt Francis, who has been in the Territorial Army for almost 15 years, left her job as a pub manager in June to begin her training.

She described the tour so far as a "good learning experience".

In 2006 she was awarded a Lord Lieutenant's certificate - the highest civilian honour short of an MBE - for services to the TA.

Company spokesman Lt Jon Dolphin said: "The company's role in the Helmand province continues to expand.

"With the exception of a few lucky ones who are on leave, we will all be away from loved ones.

"In Afghanistan, we will be celebrating as best we can and will take consolation from the fact we are escaping the weeks of incessant adverts on TV and the huge Christmas shopping queues!"

He added one of the most moving parts of the tour was attending a ramp ceremony, where a casket containing a dead soldier was loaded on to a plane.

Ministry of Defence spokesman Susan Coulthard said although the soldiers would be working on Christmas Day, they would still be given a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

She added: "The chefs out there make a really big effort to make it even better than home.

"I would not be at all surprised if they had some entertainment - sometimes celebrities fly out with no notice."

Ms Coulthard added the troops would unwrap gifts from home and festive boxes sent from the soldiers' charity UK4U.

And she said they would also get extra time to call family and friends in the UK.

She said: "Because people make such an effort to make it special it can be even better than home. But they don't have that contact with family - and that's what they miss, particularly those with children, that's tough."

7:18pm Wednesday 19th December 2007

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