Holiday deployment memories...

2013-12-21T04:56:32-05:00

Most of us have been deployed during Christmas and other important holidays. Our experiences vary when it comes to those times. Those experiences are a little part of who we are today. Whether if it was a dinner at the DFAC with your platoon, or a Skype call home, or a package in the mail, what do you hold dear as most memorable from your holidays away from home?

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 21 at 2013 5:48 AM

2013-12-21T05:48:50-05:00

I would have to say the meals in the DFAC and just embrasing the suck of being deployed with my fellow Soldiers during the holiday season.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 21 at 2013 8:57 AM

2013-12-21T08:57:02-05:00

Christmas Day 2004. Work up at Camp Virginia (waiting to head into Iraq) and it was raining. Went back to sleep to wake up and a leak in the tent was above me...My cot was flooded, sleeping bag was soaked, shoes and boots were soaked as well.

Definitely a Christmas I will not forget!

Response by SFC Lamont Womack made Dec 21 at 2013 9:26 AM

2013-12-21T09:26:14-05:00

Well it wasn't really a holiday but I remember I turned 21 in Bosnia. My birthday is in February and I can remember being on guard duty with snow up to my calf. I remember thinking to myself, "Maybe this Army thing was a bad idea" Ha! Good times though.

Response by MG Peter Bosse made Dec 21 at 2013 9:55 AM

2013-12-21T09:55:31-05:00

Great question. MAJ Michael Seering and I (then a LTC) volunteered to pull guard duty on one of the towers at Camp Anaconda, Iraq on Christmas eve so that our enlisted Soldiers could have some time off. We sat out there on the midnight shift in the cold rain as dogs barked in the distance and we contemplated our likely responses to a possible, although unlikely, enemy attack. The enemy's preferred method of attack was mortars for Camp Anaconda. We are coming up on our 10 year anniversary of that event in a few days and we will surely catch up via phone to re-live that fond memory.

Response by PO2 Michael Marie made Dec 21 at 2013 12:57 PM

2013-12-21T12:57:19-05:00

I wish I had the photo available on my iPad of my funniest and most bizarre Christmas deployment memory: I walked into the DFAC for our big meal, and there was my Jordanian terp dressed as Santa Claus. Too weird.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 21 at 2013 6:36 PM

2013-12-21T18:36:52-05:00

Thanksgiving dinner at a DFAC in Afghanistan. The contractors would get these huge blocks of foam and carve them into various things throughout the year, and then paint them for holiday decorations. When we walked in there to have thanksgiving dinner we saw a nicely carved and painted Pilgrim and Indian. I couldn't stop laughing when I noticed the Indian wasn't the Native American we expected, but an Indian from India!

Response by PO2 Pete Haga made Dec 22 at 2013 1:38 AM

2013-12-22T01:38:10-05:00

Thanksgiving , Christmas, and New Years in the Med. Turkey that taste like jet full and sweet potatoes that were mush and a glass of bug juice. but liberty on Christmas eve and day spent in Rome at the Vatican and new years eve on liberty in Naples hot times lots of fun and great friends! places most people will never see. we truly are the lucky ones.

Response by 1SG Steven Stankovich made Dec 22 at 2013 3:06 AM

2013-12-22T03:06:20-05:00

The holiday that I most remember while deployed was Thanksgiving 2004 in Shindand, Afghanistan. It was the first time in about two months that our entire Troop, and most of the Squadron was together. The DFAC put on a real nice spread and everyone really enjoyed the camaraderie. It was most memorable because a few days after that meal, we lost our SQDN CDR and two other members of our SQDN in a plane crash.

Always take advantage of the times that you have with friends and battle buddies. Don't ever pass up an opportunity to pass along a kind word or two, especially during the holidays.

Response by PO2 Orlando Sims, MPA made Dec 22 at 2013 3:22 AM

2013-12-22T03:22:01-05:00

I was on deployment on my first ship the USS John L Hall (FFG-32). I spent the holidays in the the eastern pacific off the coast of Central and South America conducting counter-drug operations. We decorated our fake Christmas tree with soda can tabs and other shinny objects. We had a great meal and popped fireworks off the side of the ship for New Years Eve.

Response by Jordan Gaudard made Dec 22 at 2013 3:47 AM

2013-12-22T03:47:31-05:00

Leading up to Christmas my platoon decided to pain the nose cone of one of our UAVs red. On Christmas eve right before midnight we launched that bird. Other than that, the fact that my platoon was one of the few that had to work a full day on Christmas.

Response by SSG (ret) William Martin made Dec 22 at 2013 3:51 PM

2013-12-22T15:51:50-05:00

Pictures and voice to voice communication is the best thing on the holidays.

Response by PO2 Jeffrey S. made Dec 22 at 2013 4:51 PM

2013-12-22T16:51:27-05:00

In 1980 my ship, USS Capodanno (FF-1093) was in La Spezia, Italy. The people treated us great. I went back to the ship at night and I went up to the signal brigde and looked through the big eyes up at the Swiss Alps and saw a cabin lit up with Christmas lights. It reminded me of home.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 23 at 2013 1:39 PM

2013-12-23T13:39:11-05:00

Deployment downrange was depression, in 2005 I'd left behind a month old baby and missed his first Christmas, so Holidays downrange bring up sad memories. On the positive side our FOB held a Christmas play at our Chapel which was a good distraction. KBR cooked excellent food and one of the contractors rode around the FOB dressed like Santa taking photographs. We also received a real live Christmas tree that someone shipped in a Connex!

Response by SGT Ben Keen made Dec 23 at 2013 2:08 PM

2013-12-23T14:08:47-05:00

This isn't tied to Christmas or anything but Easter of 2003 I was medevac'ed because of kidney stones. I remember the docs taking the xrays and looking at me and telling me I was in for a long night because we didn't have the machine to break them up like a state-side hospital. After all that, I passed out and when I woke up in the recovery room I remember there was a doc dressed up as best as he could like an Easter Bunny. I remember, half in a drug-induced high, sitting up and pointing out the bunny and then passing back out.

Response by TSgt Candace Becker made Dec 23 at 2013 3:04 PM

2013-12-23T15:04:09-05:00

Last year, I was supposed to still be overseas for Christmas. I was pretty bummed, considering I had missed all the holidays the past year because I was in BMT. Then, late November, my leadership told me that I was going home a month early. My commander and first sergeant helped me out with working leave enroute to my home station, and long story short - rather than Skyping my family on Christmas Eve, I showed up on their front porch instead. Best Christmas ever. :)

Response by CMDCM Gene Treants made Dec 23 at 2013 7:28 PM

2013-12-23T19:28:34-05:00

Went to Boot Camp in November 1966. Thanksgiving, Christmas,
and New Years were all spent there. This
set the trend for my first 10 years in the Navy. I spent most Christmas Holidays deployed or
in foreign countries. I was deployed to
the Caribbean for Christmas 1968 on my first ship and we
arrived back in time for our deployment to the med 6 weeks after our
return. Not something I would recommend
for everyone, but **IT happens.

Maybe the most memorable Christmas were the two I spent in Guam
1969 and 1970. Then there was the Christmas
at South Pole Station (Antarctica for those of you
geographically fashioned.) Outside there
on a Warm Summer's day, during Christmas is a balmy minus 60degrees F and no we
were not wearing swim suits and sunbathing.

Oh, wait, maybe Italy
1973 and 1974 in Naples where New
Years Eve is celebrated by getting rid of a little old junk. There they save EVERYTHING for most of the
year and then throw it out by heaving it over the balconies of apartment houses
and into the streets. Fireworks, that
look like a massive artillery bombardment mark the midnight
hour. Even a 4th of July in NYC pales by
comparison to New Years Even in Naples.

However, if we are talking the Best Christmas Holidays, that
would be Hawaii,1976 to 1979. My wife and I would leave our apartment on
the 36th floor and go down to the pool. After
swimming a few laps we would sit in the
hot and sip a few glasses of Champagne
and toast all of friends back in the Mainland.
So Yes, in my 30 years I was deployed a great number of times (even more
than mentioned here), but overall I had a good time and would go back and do it
the same way. Memories of the people and
places and good times outweigh the lonely separations. By the way, even when I retired in 1966 we
did not have access to very good, if any phone service at sea and internet
connections to home were unheard of.
Count your blessings and Merry Christmas to all of you. For those on Active Duty, thanks for carrying
on the tradition.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 23 at 2013 10:08 PM

2013-12-23T22:08:21-05:00

Many memorable for sure, few I hold dear. My most memorable holiday experience, it was a dandy to say the least, one most read about and one I would like to forget..... 2003, Early Christmas morning patrol through Fallujah that resulted in a 6 hour*Ish fire fight. Minor injuries sustained but, sights, sounds, smells and exposure made for one hell of a Christmas day. Best part is late that night we all enjoyed a hot "Christmas" meal, together..............scenes resignate and play out often...03-04 was definitely a year that change me forever.

Response by SPC Corbin Doades made Dec 23 at 2013 10:13 PM

2013-12-23T22:13:32-05:00

I was in Djibouti, Africa in 2004 for Christmas. It was a really great meal. Real turkey, mashed taters, gravy green beans. It was great. New Years eve was even better. At the time, Djibouti was a "wet" area. So it was a great New Years eve party for us. I will never forget that night.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 14 at 2014 12:49 PM

2014-01-14T12:49:44-05:00

My most memorable holiday was Thanksgiving 2010 at Camp Taji, Iraq. My platoon worked 1800-0600. We got off work that morning and everybody participated in the 1st Combat Aviation Brigade "5K Turkey Trot". After finishing the 5K I went to bed and around 1500 or so I was awaken with a loud explosion and shockwave from a rocket that landed about 50 meters from my CHU. It scares the hell out of me. I jumped out of bed and ran outside to see what happened and saw one of my pilots in the bunker and smoke coming from the living area next to mine. Two Soldiers were wounded. After accountability I got ready for work and we briefed out pilots that once we launched them on their mission, the whole platoon was leaving the flight line to go eat dinner together. Dinner wasn't great, but the fact that we were all together celebrating as a family made up for it. After dinner, we ended up looking over our helicopters and removing any shrapnel from the explosion. That was by far the most memorable holiday I have ever had in my 11 years of military service. The following year's Thanksgiving was probably the most depressing, because I was in a new unit, away from my military family I have been with for the past 6 years and 27 months of deployment.

Response by SPC John Lebiecki made Jan 24 at 2017 7:55 PM

2017-01-24T19:55:45-05:00

2003-> our CoC built up a building and had Christmas dinner sent out to us (on the outskirts of Samarra.) Then we got to call home on the sat phones.

2006-> Running ops in New Baghdad, our Battalion Commander sent our company back to FOB Liberty for Christmas lunch and "personal maintenance time."

Response by SPC Lyle Montgomery made Nov 24 at 2021 11:13 AM

2021-11-24T11:13:09-05:00

I was outprocessing in Vietnam. WE were in an airforce base In Da Nang. I hadn't seen a flush toilet (Poreelan Dream) in months, Having been an Army grunt in the bush. It was Christmas eve in 1970 Some of my new found buddies and me watched Woodstock at an air force theatre. It was great. We were going back to the world.