What is your most memorable Christmas while deployed?

1974 USS Independence CV62, walking the line to get food and looked up to see the skipper of the ship serving. I looked at him and said thank you skipper and Merry Christmas.

How the hell did you get to see Bob Hope? I was there in 69 and he never came close to anywhere I was. I don't remember christmas as it was just another workday.
And houches? We only had GP mediums. I thought you Marines roughed it!
Oh Well!!!!

It was Christmas Eve1964 at Pleiku, Vietnam. I was a corporal with the 560th Military Police detachment. Bob Hope landed at Camp Holloway, 52nd Aviation unit. It was an unplanned stop, but due to weather, which forced half of the show to fly somewhere else. It was try and organize some sort of security fast. I was patrolling with my Thompson .45 sub machine gun at the rear of the spectators. I had 5 or 6 MPs at various locations. The perimeter fence consisted of two stands of wire. Vegetation grew up to the edge. There were probably 200 or so GIs in the audience. Hope naturally quipped about where was Pleiku? Everything went off all right, they did an abbreviated show with all the performers, but most of the production crew and musicians had been on the other plane. Pleiku was attacked on 7 February 1965. Both the II Corps Advisory compound where we were billeted and Camp Holloway were attacked. That was really the start.

I had to make a run by truck to Long Binh 1970 Christmas and inside the base was a Christmas Tree made from sand bags with lights that I took a picture of. I thought it was the greatest thing that I saw that day.

Arrived in country for Desert Shield Christmas Eve 1991.

Christmas 2009. Got a half day off and spent the morning with my daughter who was deployed with us as the BN intel analyst,

Having Bob Hope visit our Base during the holidays in l962.

Christmas 1969 at NSA DaNang. Christmas Eve at Deep Water Piers, our division Bos'n dropped off a pallet of Colt 45. Needless to say we all got hammered. I remember waking up on Christmas morning majorly hung over and home sick (I was 28 days away from going home). We were all pretty sick that day. Worst Christmas ever.

I was on guard in our squads night logger at midnight on Christmas eve 1970. Everyone was sleeping and I had the PRC225 radio. There was usually nothing to hear on night watch but we had to be able to be contacted, just in case. About 5 minutes till midnight soft Christmas music started streaming from the headset. As I listened I felt a wonderful warmth fill my heart. I thought about the radioman on the other end of the line and how he though about putting some Christmas songs out to us that did not get out of the bush to see Bob Hope.
SP4 Jack Walker US Army Ret.

Christmas 1971, Phan Rang AB, Vietnam. I was with OSI,responsible for gathering intelligence about possible attacks of the enemy, strange sightings, etc. We were not amused with military TV, set on auto-control Christmas Eve, showing soap-opera TV shorts that were 10-15 years old. Horseplay ensued to better occupy our time. I concocted a phony "Enemy sighting" I sent to the Base Commander, to the effect of, "A sighting was made of a strange man dressed in red and white, out of shape physically, and singing to himself as he drove a sleigh across the rice paddies drawn by several caribou. The intelligence community suggests we respond with a helicopter gun-ship prepared to meet the enemy, probably disguised as a jolly old man so as to catch us off guard in these holiday hours. Our Air Base is manned with 200 Air Force personnel without aircraft, as our planes were prematurely sent to Cam Ranh Air Base. 200 other personnel are at Long Binh Army Post for the Bob Hope show. To be blunt, we need Army or Marine support ASAP. Our only weapons carrier has a flat tire. " It was lucky for me that the Base Commander had a good sense of humor and ignored this important message!