The best gift:

Kenny Allsop arrived home for the holidays and headed off to In-N-Out burger with friends.

Nothing unusual about that. Lots of kids are home this week from college, revisiting favorite hometown hangouts.

Allsop, on the other hand, just got back from Iraq.

The 19-year-old Costa Mesa man enlisted in the Army Reserves after graduating from Newport Harbor High School June 2006 and was deployed with his unit to Iraq, this September.

Allsop wants to be a police officer, but the minimum age requirement to enter the police academy is 20 ½, and Allsop didn’t want to wait.

When he was approached by an Army recruiter, Allsop made the decision to enlist in the Reserves.

He felt that as a Reservist he would more likely see combat duty.

“I wanted to be in a combat zone fighting for my country,” he said.

His mom, Tori Allsop, and stepfather Joe Harrington, were against their teenage son’s enlistment initially.

Kenny is their only child, and they were scared.

The recruiter assured the couple they would be able to communicate with him through e-mails. Allsop also got a cellphone, and he calls often.

Tori is thankful to have her son home for Christmas, and both she and Joe are very proud of him.

“This was a major commitment for him. I have to be supportive, but I still get the waterworks, and I think about him all the time,” she said.

Allsop’s unit is training the Iraqi police, and he said it’s not as bad over there as some reports characterize it.

“Sometimes, it doesn’t seem like we’re at war. When I visualize war, I picture WWII, or Vietnam and massive battles. This war is more of a humanitarian mission.”

Allsop originally was scheduled to get leave in January, then found out in late November he would be able to go home in December.

His mom and stepfather, along with Allsop’s dad, Lloyd, and grandparents from both sides, will celebrate the holidays together.

There has also been an incredible amount of support from the community, Harrington said.

Allsop was with more than 100 other soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan when his first flight landed in Dallas Tuesday.

They had to go through customs, which was on the upper level of the airport. Looking out through glass partitions, Allsop said there were crowds of people holding “Welcome Home” signs.

When the group came around to the stairs and looked down, the crowd had formed two lines on either side of the stairs, standing and applauding.

Allsop believes in what he’s doing, and that the U.S. is making progress in Iraq.

“I think we’re doing a good job over there. The violence has gone down dramatically. Counter-insurgency warfare takes a long time to fight. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

And he’s pretty fortunate, he said, to get to be home with his family for Christmas.

SUE THOENSEN may be reached at (714) 966-4627 or at [email protected].