Your Military-Related Christmas Stories

[Brig]

We have a lot of veterans on the forum, and anyone who has served any amount of time in the military has undoubtedly missed a Christmas (or five). And, though I'm home for the holidays this year, this year has been more reminiscent of a deployed Christmas than usual. Personally, I think it's due to the 'Rona...going out to less places means hearing a lot less Christmas music on the speakers, fewer houses seem decorated this year, and every time I leave the wire I have to strap PPE to my face. So I thought it would be interesting for those of us you have missed Christmases while in service to share some of our fonder memories.

 

This is a military related Christmas story thread, not a militaria related Christmas thread...we already have one of those in the OT board that has been running for two years.

 

I'll start with a couple of mine. This is my 17th Christmas in uniform...of those 17, I've spent 3 of them away in combat zones, and another pulling duty at SOI Christmas Eve-mid-day Christmas. I spent another packing my bags for a deployment, and another with my house in boxes having just moved stations. And I've picked up a few fond memories along the way...

 

I remember in Baghdad, either Christmas Eve or Christmas night, sitting in a machine gun bunker outside the US Embassy, at the main VCP. Last shift before shutting down the post for the night...it was probably around 2100. A few Brits and a US Army soldier at the embassy had assembled a small bagpipe group that would play Taps at memorial services, and practice outside of Saddam's Palace when their down shifts synced up. I remember sitting in that bunker, behind a .50 cal in the cold of night, and hearing those bagpipes playing Christmas songs over the wall of the embassy.

 

I remember in Afghanistan, dining at a KBR chowhall that went all-out for the holidays. Any of you who've eaten in a KBR DFAC for a holiday meal know exactly what I'm talking about. My plate was 7 different dead animals with a side of mashed potatoes. A carnivore's dream.

 

But perhaps my favorite holiday memory was the year I pulled duty at SOI. Whereas ITB is an MOS producing school and gets holiday leave, MCT does not, and we always had to work right through the holidays. I had pulled Christmas Eve and my buddy had pulled Christmas, but since he had a new kid I offered to trade him for baby's first Christmas. Since Christmas Eve was the bigger deal in his family, he declined. We had been on the machine gun range that day, and had moved from the field to Camp Devil Dog to spend Christmas. While we had to work through the holidays, we never actually trained on Thanksgiving or Christmas, mostly because nobody at range control was working and we couldn't go hot or occupy ranges. So what would happen is base would truck a flatbed worth of chow out to the field for breakfast, and the USO would show up and set up a call center, play movies, and stuff them full of garbage before a second flatbed would show up for dinner. Then the food coma would set in, and we'd wake them up at stupid hour on the 26th and head back to the range.

 

Anyway, once we got to Devil Dog, the 1stSgt made the mistake of telling them about the holiday festivities the next day, and then cutting us instructors down to a skeleton crew of one per platoon (platoons at MCT in the winter are around 110 Marines). So I decided we're going to do the right thing since we shot machine guns all morning, and we're going to clean them...the other three platoons set theirs on rotations similar to fire watch, but I decided that I was going to reinforce the importance of 'Weapon, Body, Self' by making sure they understood that you don't sleep in combat if your weapon isn't taken care of. So we grabbed the guns and 111 of us headed to the classroom to start scrubbing.

 

But the kids knew what the next day had in store...and wouldn't SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT IT. Now, having been up since 0200 that morning and sucked yard line all day, I was running on coffee and Copenhagen. So I'd tell them to shut up and scrub, and five minutes later they were being loud and obnoxious again. I'd tell them to shut up, and five minutes later they'd be loud again. So around 2200, I went to the office and grabbed a white board. I then proceeded to write a quick OPORD...it was very thorough, doctrinally sound, but for our purposes here, I'll just hit the wavetops...

Quote

Around 2200, V-22 Ospreys flying out of New River Air Station spotted an unidentified object flying in restricted airspace above Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune traveling at speeds previously believed to be beyond current technological capabilities. It appears to be powered by 8 turbines in two rows forward of an open cockpit craft, with a pilot wearing a thick, extreme cold-weather red flight suit. Based off intercepted radio traffic alluding to the free and equitable distribution of toys and foodstuffs, S2 believes that this craft may have been sent by Russia or another communistic near-peer to reconnoiter the defenses of our installation and surrounding civilian dwellings for a possible invasion site. It is believed this invasion will take place Christmas morning when the bulk of military personnel are on leave, and the enemy will seize assets aboard Camp Lejeune in order to conduct deception operations among the local populace, moving as far into the area as they can before being detected. As one of the few units still operating aboard Camp Lejeune during the holiday, we have been tasked with conducted security operations IVO Camp Devil Dog. Observe and report and visual contact with the suspected reconnaissance craft.

 

Only much longer, with tasks, logistics, etc, etc. I then issued the order and cut all the Marines into equal sized units for one hour shifts that would get us until daybreak. Half the Marines in each group were instructed to place the red lens filter in their moonbeams, and the other half had to place the green filters in. Then they stood outside and shone their flashlights in the sky for their shift, giving SITREPS over the comm every 15 minutes.

 

Long story short...I established a Santa watch. Turns out, the students were all about it and found it funny...which is probably good for me, because in this day and age I'm sure if someone had hurt feelings I'd've found myself out of a job.

 

Those are mine...share yours.

[ScottG]

I will give it a go.

    Christmas morning near Baghdad with a remote team 2003, it was basically uncharted territory for all in theater as everyone expected big trouble from the rising insurgency as well as from the Saddam era holdouts, also remember it had only been 11 days since "we got him". 

     Even though we were in a remote setting (6 team members) a stand to was ordered from 0400-0700 and I was the Section Sergeant at that time. I not only had to do the stand to with the team where I lived, I had to get to my other teams which were scattered from Fallujah to the Northern part of Baghdad to include Baqubah and Abu-Ghraib. 

      I remember the early morning being so very quiet and the sky at that time of the morning was clear. To be on stand to and hear the first call to prayer on Christmas morning in the cradle of civilization is quite a surreal experience. Not really sure I can put it into words... Then to travel to the other areas of the city and see the Iraqi Christians celebrate while most of the Muslims just went about their business was also interesting. All in all it was pretty quiet. The experience of that day and its surreal vibe is something I will always remember. Later that afternoon I received a movement order for myself and two of my teams and at the same time I learned that instead of having teams from Fallujah to Baghdad, I would have them from Fallujah to Mosul! 

      A later result of that was that I visited Ninevah, and the tomb of the Prophet Nahum as well as some ancient Assyrian sites. Pretty amazing though its not listed on any of my upcoming vacation itineraries!    Merry Christmas everyone!   Scott.