TEMECULA - Some of the Camp Pendleton Marines were a thousand miles or more from their families, but residents of Paseo del Sol turned an association clubhouse into a home away from home on Thanksgiving, serving up cornbread stuffing and four varieties of turkey.

The homeowners association put together the holiday dinner after a Paseo resident asked whether he and other members of the 9th Communications Battalion could rent out some space. Rivera, about 25 Marines and an equal number of family members converged on the clubhouse in central Temecula from barracks and houses as far away as Hemet and Oceanside on Thursday.

For several, it would be the last family-style gathering before deployment to Iraq, Rivera said. The battalion supports a wide range of combat units, and its 1,200 members are now spread across Anbar province and across the world, with home bases at Pendleton, at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and on the Japanese island of Okinawa. Most of the Marines who turned out Saturday are among the 500 members of the 9th Comm expected to deploy from Pendleton to Anbar between January and July.

"For some of them, it's their first deployment, and this will be their first Thanksgiving away from home," 9th Battalion commander Lt. Col. Dudley Griggs said.

For 1st Sgt. David Dube, who was sitting at a table outside with his wife, Lacey, their three children and his brother Clinton, it was the first Thanksgiving dinner with his family since 2005 and would be the last until 2009. Dube expects to deploy in June and return around next Christmas. He made the trip up with his brother, a newly enlisted Marine, to spend the afternoon with "both my families," the other being the Marine Corps.

Half-joking, one Marine said Thursday afternoon that he was relishing the beer, which is forbidden under Islamic sharia law. Inside, roast pork -- also forbidden to Muslims -- was piled up on a plates alongside trays of ham, cranberry dressing and green-bean casserole.

Sgt. Major Harry Rivera said the event took a life of its own after his initial inquiry. Paseo residents Jim Keen and Sharon Gregory, whose husband transports Marines as a Navy hovercraft navigator, got the space donated and drummed up support from local businesses, which provided the food. Several who showed up ahead of time watched the Dallas Cowboys manhandle the New York Jets on a big-screen television donated by a local Best Buy electronics store.

"Whatever you see here this afternoon, they went out and got it for us," Rivera said of the Paseo volunteers.

- Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com.