Michael Stream, a master chief petty officer in the Navy, has seen his share of conflict during his 25-year career.

A native of Bend, Stream has been in Lebanon, Grenada and the Persian Gulf. Now, he’s watching his son, Nathaniel, 21, and daughter, Cassandra, 20, go to war.

”This one really bothers me because with both of my kids it’s different,” said Stream, who’s stationed at Meridian, Miss. ”I’m facing what my wife and kids have had to face for the last 23 years.”

Like many families with loved ones in the Middle East, Stream has to deal with the Iraqi war on a personal level.

The toughest part is not knowing exactly where family members are, or when they will come home.

So he waits.

In the meantime, he treasures photographs, letters and e-mails from abroad.

Nathaniel Stream, a petty officer third class in the Navy, where he’s served for three years, is in the Persian Gulf on the USS Oscar Austin.

Cassandra, an airman first class in the Air Force, has been on call since the holidays and could leave at any moment from Langley Air Force Base, Va., for the Middle East.

It doesn’t make her nervous, she said, even now that the war is started.

”It’s about time,” she said.

”I know I’m going to do my job right and not put myself at risk,” said Cassandra, or Cassy, as she prefers.

Her job as a bioenvironmental engineer is to sample water after chemical warfare, she said. ”We go out and say what our troops have been hit with and recommend (protection) like gas masks,” said Cassy, who joined the Air Force two years ago. ”We get to play in all the gross stuff.”

She said she loves her job and it’s the only one she ever wanted.

”With my dad,” she reflected, ”I just waited for him to come home. And with my brother, I know he’s doing his job and he’ll be OK.”

Cassy seems to be taking a cue from her mother, Carol, who has had to deal with war as a military wife, and now as a mother.

”You just become stronger, live life and take it day by day,” Carol Stream said.

”If you look at the military as another job, it’s not hard to handle. You have to just put things into perspective.”

The Stream family looks to the future, when Cassy and Nathaniel return home safely. And when Michael and Carol, high school sweethearts from Bend, will retire and live here again.

Toby Niles

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Toby Niles, 20, a 2000 Bend High School graduate, is somewhere in Iraq. His parents, Leonard and Cathy Niles, fear he might face the heat of battle.

”I miss not being able to communicate with him at all and knowing he’s OK,” said Cathy Niles. ”I’m scared that Toby will be in the thick of things.”

In a March 8 letter that arrived on Wednesday as the war was about to start, Toby wrote, ”Pray for our protection, a quick outcome and also pray for our enemies.”

Toby has always been a compassionate, loving and affectionate son, said Cathy Niles, who works at Bend Memorial Clinic.

She smiled over the memory of their last night together as a family. They were having dinner in a restaurant and Toby saw a jar of maraschino cherries. He told his mom how much he liked them, so she tried to buy the jar. But the restaurant wouldn’t sell it.

One of the first things Cathy included in a package to Toby was a jar of maraschino cherries.

Leonard Niles, who spent two years in the Army himself, is proud of Toby. He knows that his dad, Toby’s grandfather who died two years ago, would also be proud of him.

”I think about him every day,” said Leonard Niles, a Bend-based building contractor. ”I see something or hear a song that reminds me of him, and boom, he’s in my mind again.”

Leonard also said he prays for Toby and hopes he and the other men and women come back safe.

In a Feb. 22 e-mail, Toby wrote: ”We are going into this with the support of friends and family back home, along with each other. The bonds we have formed working and training together will keep us looking out for each other. I’m glad to be supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and I know that we will make it home.”

Dawna Flansburg

Marine Corps Pfc. Dawna Flansburg might be celebrating her 20th birthday in the Middle East if she’s still there in May.

She was sent there as a replacement last Friday.

Her mom, June Flansburg of Bend, hasn’t heard from her since.

”It’s automatic what you think,” she said. ”She will be replacing people who go home or get hurt.”

The thought scares June, but she knows how tough Dawna can be.

Though only 5-feet 2-inches tall, Dawna played basketball and was a point guard on a select team at Granite Falls High School in Washington, where she graduated. Dawna also attended Bend High School for a year.

”She takes on challenges,” June Flansburg said. ”And she always has to do something different.”

Even so, she worries.

”I would like to know what’s going on and that she’s OK,” she said. ”I don’t want any casualties, and I know there is going to be some. That’s war.”

She misses her weekly phone calls. June usually talks to Dawna and her two older sisters, Melissa and Angie, once a week.

For now, the memories of her last weekend with Dawna sustain June. She went to see Dawna off from Camp Pendleton in California and they spent their time shopping and eating out.

”We had a great time in San Diego,” June Flansburg said. ”I’ve never laughed so hard in my life.”

On their last morning together, her mother brought Dawna coffee, told her she loved her and that she was proud.

”I was worried to see her go,” she said. ”But she has a job to do. She’s nervous of the unexpected, but she said, That’s why I’m a Marine.’”

Timothy Vandervlugt

As a full-time reservist in the Oregon Army National Guard, Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Vandervlugt, 37, was a little surprised to hear that his unit, the 1249th Engineer Battalion, was mobilizing on March 26.

”With the type of unit we are, I didn’t think we’d really be activated,” he said. ”But I guess it was just wishful thinking that I’d get to stay home with my family.”

His unit digs tank ditches, blows up bridges, builds shelters and clears mine fields, he said.

The unit is heading to Fort Lewis, Wash., to train before they get their orders, he said. He doesn’t know if the unit is heading overseas, but that’s the assumption.

Wednesday’s announcement of war wasn’t a shock, he said.

”We knew that was coming.” he said. ”It was only a matter of time.

Celine, his wife of six years, said she was shocked, but resigned when she heard the news that his unit was being mobilized.

”You go through about 500 different emotions,” she said. ”But we’re trying to make it work.”

That means organizing lawn care and fixing up their Bend home. They’ve lived here since 1999.

It also means updating Timothy’s will, doubling his life insurance policy and giving Celine the power of attorney.

Most importantly for Timothy, it means spending precious time with his family, reading to his daughter, Maia, and staying home with her and Celine on the weekends.

”It’s going to be tough to leave my daughter and my wife,” he said. ”But this is my profession and I knew that when I got involved.”

As a full-time Oregon Army National Guard reservist for 17 years, Timothy seems prepared for the possibility that his unit might be heading off to war.

Celine, however, is still dealing with the ramifications.

”I can’t imagine how hard it’s going to be,” said Celine. ”Especially since we have a 1-year-old. How am I going to explain to her so she can understand when each evening she points to the door expecting her father?”

Ernestine Bousquet can be reached at 541-382-1811, Ext. 387, or at ebousquet@bendbulletin.com.