Posted on Nov 28, 2015
What is your most memorable Christmas while deployed?
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We sure didn't have the wherewithal all to decorate our hooches like this in Vietnam, but one of the parents of one of my men owned an Italian restaurant in Indianapolis and they sent all the table decorations and stuff to make a helluva Christmas dinner. I and my driver stole a case of frozen steaks from the ration break down point at Long Binh and I horse traded at the mess hall for a lot of other "necessities". The young man who had grown up working in the family restaurant worked his buns off setting it all up and we had a very Merry Christmas despite missing friends and family at home. The leftovers (and they were ample) were donated to an orphanage at Ton Son Nhut. We also stuffed stockings for the orphans with everything we could find as well as small gifts our families sent from home. It became a contest to see who could make the biggest stocking. Have you ever stuffed an Army issue wool sock? They expanded so large that most were taller than the kids. That was Christmas 1967. The Tet Offensive began less than two months later...
We sure didn't have the wherewithal all to decorate our hooches like this in Vietnam, but one of the parents of one of my men owned an Italian restaurant in Indianapolis and they sent all the table decorations and stuff to make a helluva Christmas dinner. I and my driver stole a case of frozen steaks from the ration break down point at Long Binh and I horse traded at the mess hall for a lot of other "necessities". The young man who had grown up working in the family restaurant worked his buns off setting it all up and we had a very Merry Christmas despite missing friends and family at home. The leftovers (and they were ample) were donated to an orphanage at Ton Son Nhut. We also stuffed stockings for the orphans with everything we could find as well as small gifts our families sent from home. It became a contest to see who could make the biggest stocking. Have you ever stuffed an Army issue wool sock? They expanded so large that most were taller than the kids. That was Christmas 1967. The Tet Offensive began less than two months later...
Deployment
Vietnam War
Christmas
Memories
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 176
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Hue Vietnam 1965. George E Jessel entertained the troops inside the VOA compound. He can outside to visit and meet the Marines that were protecting the compound. An area that was always under fire, his support of the military was very special. Cpl John T Hewitt family from Richmond Va sent our 4 man team - canned sardines, family photos, ( maybe a few cans of Black Label beer) and a Rosary each.
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1989 Panama Just Cause/Desert Shield. Sitting with my fbf eating a chicken ale king MRE thinking about our family back home and how bad we wished we were with them.
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1970 and a wet day at Fire Base Blackhawk on QL19 between Anke and Plieku. Hot meal with ham and turkey, with warm Olympia beer. Good day :)
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Seeing a black Santa riding on the hood of a 3/4 ton truck around the perimeter road at Marble road Air Facility in 1970 made my day. LOL
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CPT Jack Durish
What is ironic is that Saint Nicolas was a Moor who converted to Christianity so, yes, he was black (BTW, I learned that at Santa Claus School, but that's another story)
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SGT (Join to see)
Sorry, but the actual Saint was the Bishop of Myra, living between 270 and 340 AD and either of Roman or Greek descent.
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Remote Turkey in 1975. Playing Santa Claus at a Party for kids from the local orphanage. Not that they knew who Santa was....but were all smiles when I gave them a gift.
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A little antisemitism for Christmas. My uncle Jack was killed on patrol in Normandy. My cousin Alan was wounded on Okinawa. My cousin Martin, a Marine, fought in Korea. I spent a brutal winter outdoors near the DMZ in a combat zone in Korea. Maybe we made up for the day your guy missed?
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Working Christmas Day in Afghanistan. Didn’t do a thing, set up a digital projector, opened up my facility, watched movies with a bunch of people, some I knew, some I didn’t, but we were all family, we all felt that too.
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BLT 3/1 was blooded on 23 Dec 67, on Operation Fortress Ridge. 10 KIA and 20 wounded. On the 24th we were back on the Valley Forge, had a great Christmas dinner on the 25th. Embarked on Operation Badger Tooth on 26 Dec. On the 27th 3/1 encountered an NVA battalion in the village Thon Tam Khe. At the end of that miserable day, 48 Marines were dead and over 100 wounded. Christmas hasn't been the same since.
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Date: December 25th 1966 0700 Hrs.
Place: Phan Rang AB RVN
Unit: 35th Security Police Squadron, K-9 Section
At 0600 I and my K-9 partner Prinz were picked up from post and returned to the kennel area after spending Christmas Eve/Morning patrolling the Air Base perimeter for the past 10+ hours.
The squad kenneled, feed and watered their dogs then climbed back on the truck again for the trip to the compound.
It was now about 0700 and as prearranging three of us got together in our hooch to memorialize our Christmas in Vietnam. Hopefully our only Christmas in Vietnam.
I pulled my olive green footlocker to the center of the floor and removed a bottle of Crown Royal, three cans of Coke and a small candle from my locker.
With the lighted candle at center stage on my footlocker and the three of us sitting around it we share stories of past Christmases, families at home, girlfriends present and past and what our plans were when we finally left the war zone. All that until we finished that large bottle of Crown Royal and the candle finally went out.
It definitely was not the Christmas we were dreaming about with our at home families but we were family now and making the best with what we had and it was a good morning.
To this day I cannot drink Crown Royal without remembering that Christmas morning in Vietnam.
Place: Phan Rang AB RVN
Unit: 35th Security Police Squadron, K-9 Section
At 0600 I and my K-9 partner Prinz were picked up from post and returned to the kennel area after spending Christmas Eve/Morning patrolling the Air Base perimeter for the past 10+ hours.
The squad kenneled, feed and watered their dogs then climbed back on the truck again for the trip to the compound.
It was now about 0700 and as prearranging three of us got together in our hooch to memorialize our Christmas in Vietnam. Hopefully our only Christmas in Vietnam.
I pulled my olive green footlocker to the center of the floor and removed a bottle of Crown Royal, three cans of Coke and a small candle from my locker.
With the lighted candle at center stage on my footlocker and the three of us sitting around it we share stories of past Christmases, families at home, girlfriends present and past and what our plans were when we finally left the war zone. All that until we finished that large bottle of Crown Royal and the candle finally went out.
It definitely was not the Christmas we were dreaming about with our at home families but we were family now and making the best with what we had and it was a good morning.
To this day I cannot drink Crown Royal without remembering that Christmas morning in Vietnam.
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I think it was either 1982 or 1983. Underway and submerged on a ballistic missile submarine, USS Casimir Pulaski, somewhere in the Atlantic. I was a junior Missile technician (MT3). Our Weapons department senior chief dressed himself in a Santa suit and walked through the ship handing out candy canes. A group of Christmas carolers went through the ship singing to the men on watch in the different compartments. A Christmas dinner was prepared by the cooks.
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