A GI's Christmas

The holiday season is upon us, and despite my best efforts I’m still a long ways from being prepared. I guess that’s about normal, as over the last sixty plus years I have yet to be ready for Christmas! Even so, I can’t help but remember the days long ago when I served in the US military and had little to look forward to except a lonely Christmas Eve in some strange and far away places. Actually, “strange” is hardly the proper term for some of them… I’ve stood alert hangar duty on Christmas day a couple of times, I was once unfortunate enough to be subjected to a pretty respectable rocket and mortar barrage on Christmas Eve, and like most GI’s, I’ve often had nothing to do other that sit around the NCO club soaking up a few bottles of suds. (If you catch me at the right time I might even tell you about a certain Easter Sunday I spent hiding in the bushes while the bad guys sat around almost within touching distance, enjoying their Nuc-nam and rice!) No, holidays, particularly Christmas, are not an easy time to be a serviceman stationed in a strange and often hostile land, a long ways away from home and family. “Care Packages” were particularly valued, especially if they contained a batch of Mom’s home made cookies, and probably the best gift of all was a long rambling letter from the folks at home. Christmas carols came over AFN (the Armed Forces radio Network), and Santa Claus kept his distance for fear of being shot down (if he did show up, it was probably in an armored personnel carrier)! Then too, the strains of “Silent Night” hardly sound proper when punctuated by the roar of aircraft engines as fighter-bombers take off to drop hate and discontent on other peoples heads. And “Joy to the World” hardly fits when the artillery guys down the road are shooting off a few salvos of Christmas greetings from Uncle Sam.

Still, despite my maudlin reminiscing, the military went to a lot of effort to make the holidays bearable for young soldiers. Generally, in somewhat peaceable area, the barracks rats (the young bachelors) would take the duty on Christmas so that the married guys could be home with their wives and kids. In a combat zone like Vietnam it didn’t matter, Christmas was just another workday, as the much vaunted “Christmas Truce” was little more than a propaganda ploy by Charlie. ‘Course in our case the married guys returned the pulling duty favor a few days latter when we had a big party coming up. It’s interesting to note however, that in both World Wars the troops (in Europe at least, and across the hatreds of war) would declare their own impromptu Christmas Eve cease fire, and in the unexpected silence of the night would sing the old familiar carols to each other. The same happened during our civil war, when groups of opposing soldiers would meet in the middle of “no mans land”, and sit around for a couple of hours singing the old tunes and discussing their plight, all the while smoking Confederate tobacco and drinking Union coffee, until some rather indignant officers put an end to that!

In my day, for the most part nobody got stuck with KP on Christmas, as that was traditionally handled by the senior officers and NCOs. The chow wasn’t all that bad, particularly considering that the mess hall was cooking for hundreds (or even thousands) of soldiers. No, we got a real live properly cooked meal (although probably not up to Mama’s standards), and it certainly beat out ‘C” rations, ‘K’ rations, or MRE’s! If you were up on the firing line, dinner was probably served from insulated containers and might still be lukewarm when you got it, but at least it was the traditional Christmas dinner and not the inevitable hardtack and salt pork of Civil War days. A proper salute is due the cooks and bakers; as they put a lot of extra effort into those holiday meals! Where I was at, it was another tradition that the Commander, accompanied by the First Sergeant, would make a round of the maintenance area on Christmas Eve with a bottle of whisky, sharing a tot of cheer, and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

While we may have felt sorry for ourselves during my soldiering days, we had things infinitely better than some in that long line of American soldiers stretching out through our nations history. Consider the tired and hungry American soldiers at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, or remember the words of George Washington’s letter to Congress while at Valley Forge in 1778… "To see the men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lie upon, without shoes...without a house or hut to cover them until those could be built, and submitting without a murmur, is a proof of patience and obedience which, in my opinion, can scarcely be paralleled." I doubt that Christmas was very enjoyable for the men of the Army of the Potomac at Falmouth in 1862 either, or we might consider the plight of the soldiers and marines at Frozen Chosin in 1950. The Cold War may be over, and our troops may be coming home from Iraq, but many others still stand in harms way in Afghanistan this Christmas, risking sudden death or painful wounds. American soldiers still watch, far from home and family, over the shaky truce in Korea, and to keep the antagonists separated in Kosovo. They still stand guard in this dangerous world,at lonely outposts, from the frozen artic to blistering deserts to the silent depths of a cold dark sea.

So while you enjoy this holiday season, home and hearth, the company of your family, and I would hope a scrumptious Christmas dinner, take a moment to remember those millions of young Americans, past, present, and future, who gave up their Christmas so that you might have yours.

From the Fogarty household to yours, A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.