What is your most memorable Christmas while deployed?

The best memory of the Holidays was spending both Christmas, and New Years during Operation Desert Shield / Storm, listening to everyone complain about being away from home, and family. I would just smile, and laugh, because I was spending my holiday's surrounded by all my buddies for the first time in five years, since I never went home on leave during those weeks sitting in the barracks with nothing to do. The Commander eventually set up a Spades tournament to pass the time away; I remember my partner, and I went to the finals, winning the whole thing in just three hands.

I didnt have a christmas in the military. But i did have three december 25ths

1969. Departed Long Binh for R&R in Sydney on Christmas Day, arrived In Sydney on Boxing Day. I had an enjoyable week, mainly rotating between the Texas Tavern in Kings X and the Royal Auto Club downtown every evening, with days enjoying the sun on Bondi Beach.

Christmas 1969, Marine Helicopter Squadron aboard the USS Iwo Jima. We had Vietnamese orphans in the ships Hospital and we all gathered up as much pogey bait that we could find and had a little Christmas party with them. We sang a few Hymns, led by the Nuns. Not a dry eye!

lucky you :-)

1984 Bob Hope did his Christmas Special from the USS Independence. Plus we were in Israel

Christmas 1969 we were trucked over to 1st Mar Div HQ to watch the Bob Hope show, I was allowed to go as I was short on my first tour, I enjoyed the show and only had to stop 1 member of my squad from shooting a soldier who kept standing up in front of us 2X!!! We rode back and I got to stay in my hooch until evening when we shuffled up the hill to man the OP were I stayed up all night wondering the contradiction of seeing a great Christmas show in a war zone when I never had a chance in the world.

Danang Air Plane Patch in 1972, dodged rockets most of the morning. The guys on monkey mountain said they enjoyed the early morning show.

During Desert Shield/Storm we got GP mediums to sleep in instead of under our camo nets by our tracks. I pulled guard duty Christmas eve at our ammo dump and it actually snowed out in the desert!!

The Christmas in Kassel, Germany bare in mind I was 19 at the time. great to get together with friends. both Military and non- Military.

Forget about it !!!

Christmas1974, Darmstadt, West Germany. My roommate and I got a small pine tree, maybe 2-foot tall. We decorated it with balls of aluminum foil and Cheetos strung through with yarn. For a star topper we cut out the bottom of an aluminum foil pie tin. The next day the unit had a "health and welfare" inspection. The NCOs tore apart every aluminum foil ball looking for drugs. Needless to say, the tree didn't look the same when we put it back together!

Christmas 1966 Chu Lai all I remember is Christmas Day we still ran or daily patrols but all patrols were ordered not to engage for that 24 hr. time period samey same their Tet. Also all patrols had to be led by E-5 & above so I became squad leader again for the day. Saw 5 or 6 VCS’s at a distance but did not engage.

Camp Holloway, Pleiku, Christmas, 1969. A father of one of the guys in my platoon (I think it was Len's dad) sent us a live Christmas tree and decorations. L-R in the photo: Lonny Mitchell, Larry Whaley, Len Shellhammer & Paul Daily.

Christmas eve in Persian Gulf 1990 awaiting next beach assault.

My team arranged for a Christmas dinner at the American FOB near ISAF HQ and we all enjoyed a meal together minus the officers on duty at the Afghan MOI Operations Center. We were all far from our families although we were an “Army” family and were being meddling by our mutual sacrifices in order to bring the precious gift of freedom to people who had no idea what to do with the gift. It was the last time that we could celebrate as a team before an insider murdered two incredible officers who were our team mates. We felt blessed to serve together and to have achieved so much towards to goal of Afghan self sufficiency. We had no idea that a sleeper was in our midst who would destroy our trust and the families of those they murdered. The murderer worked among us on a daily basis and the two victims were the most generous among us as it relates to kindness and generosity towards every Afghan we worked with. Our Christmas dinner was a moment that few can ever comprehend in it’s power and meaning for each of us. We all pledged to risk our lives in the effort to give liberty to every Afghan and our efforts were met with the devious actions of the Taliban and the Quetta Shura. These are people that need to be expunged from existence and the same apply to every member of their gene pool. Great men died the following February and their families were robbed of their life long contributions. I am so thankful to have served among this incredible group of warriors who were willing to risk everything in order to give the most precious gift of liberty to millions of Afghans who we never met. God bless LTC Loftis and MAJ Marchanti. They gave us a gift that few will ever appreciate or understand.

Long Binh, Republic of Vietnam, 1969. Christmas Eve Bob Hope show with Neil Armstrong, who had walked on the moon that summer. He waved and said, "Fellows, I know what it's like to be a long way from home."
For the 25th, then, Charlie supplied some rockets.

Dec 2001, FOB Rhino in Afghanistan. Mail had arrived and in it were several Hickory Farms gift packs, so we shared amongst our S-3 section. It was a nice break from a solid month of MREs.

Had the fortune of being in Long Binh Xmas '67 waiting for an assignment when the Bob Hope show rolled in. Managed a spot near the stage and as an 18yr old as of just a few months had my heart rate challenged being just feet away from Raquel Welch.

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.

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.

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 :)

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Christmas 1963 I was stationed at NATTC Memphis (Millington, TN) and I was not going home. We had a 14 inch snowfall around Christmas day and they had us airmen out clearing sidewalks using a broom stick and dust pan. Evidently there were no snow shovels available and they needed sidewalks cleared so there we went. We really used up a lot of dust pans during that snow storm because the snow was heavy and wet. I was able to fly home to Nebraska for the New Year.to see my family.

Just another day in the bush, I was writing a letter home. Near the DMZ 1969, Vietnam. Merry Christmas to all.

I was in 9th infratry unit and I receieved Christmas package of cookies but I was on guard in the middle of the jungle with the rest of my fellow men, about 40 miles from Long Binh Vietnam. Christmas didn,t mean much to be there, it was just another day for patrol and being on guard. I knew the family back home was have a nice time and I was hoping we wouldn't see charlie { VC} that day, which we never. Next day they toldus we have to move to a hot zone and help out another unit that was under fire so we traveled back closer to them and driving Hyway 1 . I was the driver of a pc carried and I did enjoy driving it, I just had to be on alert for land mines, thank God I made it home safely in 1969.

Christmas Day in Long Binh Vietnam, was lucky enough to get to see the Bob Hope Christmas show along with 25,000 of my brothers and sisters, still remember it to this day

12/25/1967 C 1st Bn 4th Marines We humped all day on our trek from Strong Point A3 (between Con Thien and Gio Linh) to C2 Bridge behind Con Thien. We were lucky during this movement that a Spoter Plane saw the NVA trying get into an Ambush for us. Air strike to care of them.Thank you Jesus!

In 1972 in South Korea, stationed at Camp John Pelham, which had an artillery battalion (2nd Infantry Division, 7/17 Artillery) and a company of MPs, total of 700+ personnel, Christmas dinner consisted of 2 turkeys and fixings. By the time I got there, nothing left...I got 2 hotdogs and mashed potatoes. Somehow, all that Christmas dinner for 700+ people disappeared. I hear it turned up in various markets from Mun San to Seoul, but I never saw it.

2 years later, in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, we did a cookout (luau) on Sunset Beach (north shore of Oahu), where we had pit-roasted Palua pork with accouterments like poi and laulau. Plenty of beverages were to be had. This worked out much better, we relied upon our own devices and skipped the mess hall.

Christmas 1964 there was a big fire in the mountains out from Taegu ,Korea where we had a commo sub station me and and few others that were in company area in early morning were grabed up to fight fire with beaters . fought fire all day long till late afternoon . Will never forget that.

While I was never deployed at Christmas, if one of my fellow NCO's had duty and had a family, I was sibgle at the time, I would take theur duty for them so they coulf be with theur family. Especiallt if they had children at home. I would do the same thing for them at Thanksgiving, if I did not already have dury. It was my way of paying it foward to a fellow soldier. If they asked why, I would explain to them when I was in BCT/AIT at Ft Sill and got injured and was in the medical platoon healing from surgery, Capt. Edwards treated the whole unit, a PT platoon, Education platoon, the previous mentioned Medical platoon a BB-Q at the Artillery Museum on board base. He, his wife, 2 sons and 2 daughters did all the cooking for roughly 200 troops and footed the bill. This was on the 4th of July 1976, the nations bicentenial birthday.
So after I became an NCO, I was glad to try to do something for my fellow NCOs if possible. Fyi Capt Edwards was a mustang and had come up thru the enlisted ranks before becoming a commissioned officer. He showed alm of us great respect no matter what our rank was. Unfortunately he passed away from lung cancer in 1986. But I still remember how he treated others though.

Deployment: Vietnam War 69-70
Vinh Long, I was with B Troop 7th of 1st Cavalry Operations Officer when I received just before Christmas a Christmas tree from home and a big banner saying "Merry Christmas." Placed both in my Operations Bunker for all to see and really made Christmas special to see the faces of the pilots and crews see a reminder of home. I also received a baked cake and as usual, took a big slice and placed the rest of the cake on the officer lounge bar. Mother was a wonderful cook and it allowed everyone to feel closer to home.

Christmas 1989. I graduated from OSUT on Dec 7th, and got orders to report to Ft. Ord on Dec 17th, right as most of the units on the base were deploying to overthrow Noriega. I hadn't even turned 18 yet at the time. So I spent my first Christmas in the Army at the repple depple. I'll never forget the Sergeant there: "In a few days most of you will be in Panama. But don't worry, those flak jackets we issue you will stop a bullet!"

And of course, I was assigned to one of the units that didn't deploy.

Mine was when I was stationed at Kunsan AB, Korea. I was missing my husband and did not plan on coming back to the states for a mid-tour as I was afraid that I would not come back. I sat on Santa's lap on base and told him that I wanted my husband to be with me for Christmas. Well, after that I made arrangements for him to fly to Korea and stay in my dorm room. That made my Christmas, even though he came there after the new year. That really helped get me through the Christmas season.

As a member of the U.S. Army in December 1968, I was having Christmas Dinner just south of the Korean DMZ at Camp Casey, Korea. We had REAL eggnog, flown in from California! (“Real” as opposed to the milk we usually had, which was shipped to Korea as powder, and “reconstituted" in the Army Milk Factory in Seoul, replacing the butterfat with coconut oil. It tasted OK if it was really cold, but if not it tasted like plastic). I was amazed that the Army made that effort to make Christmas "special"!

Laying in the snow all night in the alps with my M16. I was APC driver, my sgt. wouldn’t let me sleep in it. Didn’t mind too much, APC had a terrible stink. No showers for couple of weeks for 8 infantry. 1970

I am not sure if it was Christmas day, but I was at a Navy LT house, who was a coach for the Rugby team I played for while doing two years and four months overseas. He had a wife and two children. one girl and one boy. His son graduated WestPoint a few years back. We had dinner and exchanged gifts.
We would travel a ferry about two miles across the Lock to go to practice and games. I would work Fridays and Sundays to get time off for Rugby.
My time there was made easier with his company and well as a Scotsman Mr. Morgan. He was my teammate. A lot of my time was spent on special weapon transfers. In the worst conditions I would expect men to be working in.
Pam Am 103 was blown out of the sky while I was there. It landed somewhere between 15 to 30 miles southeast of our position. Women and children were targeted for being married to our service personnel.
Over and out.

In 1965 I got a chance to see the Bob Hope Christmas show in Danang. It was pouring rain but nobody cared. It was a great break from what was happening in Vietnam. I still have vivid memories of the day.

Early 1980's Christmas eve. Uss Midway home ported in Japan . I walked the streets of yokosuka thinking about my family in California, My.Mom Dad Brothers and sister. It was my first Christmas away from home. As a young man I felt so lonely. So I put on my Walkman, listening to the BeeGees I walked for miles that night.

Having spent 33 years in the Navy, I have been assigned to a number of different ships. I have been deployed many times over the years and more than a few of those have been over holidays. We have always managed to be in port somewhere which allowed phone communication with the home front, if not having loved ones visit that port EXCEPT that one deployment to Desert Shield/Storm. Christmas was spent making best speed in the South China Sea with a sixteen ship amphibious task force headed for Persian Gulf. We were allowed some battery powered directions, but no contact home and no visitation from loved ones. I really remember that Christmas.

Christmas Day 2006 at FOB Shield in Baghdad: we had the day off from our duties as part of the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior transition team and decided to have a Christmas party and share all of our care packages from the folks back home. While in my hooch gathering mine from over the past month or so, I came across a box of Cheerios that one of my old P-3 squadronmates from Jacksonville sent earlier that year. I had set it aside because of the dearth of good breakfast chow at the DFAC. I decided to bring it along, but noticed that the box "sloshed" when it was shaken. And lo, there came a welcomed harbinger of Christmas Spirits, in spite of CENTOM’s General Order Number One forbidding said spirits: My thoughtful and resourceful friend had neatly hidden a pint of Jim Beam inside the box and carefully resealed its top with a glue gun. Thankfully, it had slipped undetected by the not-so-diligent Booze Police.

Needless to say, that was one item I did not share with my group on the FOB. No problem falling asleep that night!

It was during Desert Storm. On Christmas evening I had Christmas Dinner at 1st Sup Com. I had ham for dinner.

Remembering Christmas 54 years ago
By Robert "Bob" Kickenweitz

When I was a youth growing up in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, Christmas was pretty much the same year to year other than the presents we would receive. Each year my family would watch a variety of Christmas Shows, Ozzie & Harriet Nelson with David and Ricky, Andy Williams, Perry Como, I Remember Mamma, and of course The Story of the Nativity. On Christmas morning after church, my Aunt and Uncle would drive out from New York City to spend the day and have dinner with us, sometimes my Grandmother and Grandfather would be with us also. My younger brother Edd and I knew that whatever we received as gifts from my Aunt and Uncle there would always be a new pair of slipper socks for each of us, we hated slipper socks but we knew we couldn't say anything other than, "Thank you."

The year I have the most vivid memory of is 1966. This would be my first Christmas away from home, I would not have my family and friends around me, and we would not be having dinner together and for once I wished I could be home to receive those slipper socks. December 25, 1966 found me in Xuan Loc, South Vietnam as part of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Our base camp was located about 65 miles northeast of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, between the jungle and a rubber tree plantation, I really was not looking forward to Christmas that year. I can remember that after dinner on Christmas Eve I went and took a shower, put on a clean uniform and sat down to listen to Armed Forces Radio and to write some letters for my family back home. We also listened to Hanoi Hannah the only other station on the radio. She was the Tokyo Rose of the Vietnam War. She played the best music and in between songs would send out her propaganda message. On this night, she was saying that the Vietcong, (you remember the guys in the black pajamas) would be having Christmas Dinner on the base camp of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment the following day. Now that’s a message that really got our attention.

At about ten in the evening I got up to go over to the service for Christmas Mass. Our Chaplain, Father Egan, his assistant Tony Graziano and whoever else helped, did a superb job in preparing an open field into a beautiful place to serve midnight Mass. They started by taking some beer and soda pallets to construct a floor for our altar, then nailed some plywood on top of the pallets to finish the floor. For the rear walls of the altar, they nailed four by eight sheets of plywood to the floor, then lifting the plywood seven to eight feet high into the air to create the rear walls of the altar. Blue spotlights were used to wash light across the back walls of the altar. A podium with a white cross on the front of it was in the center of the altar.


Off the altar to the left was a confessional with a long line of soldiers and some nurses. The lines were always long at the confessional, everybody always took the opportunity when it presented itself, to go to confession. While more soldiers were filling in the bare spots in the field the Chaplains assistant was playing Christmas Carols on an organ. For some reason while I was sitting on the ground singing with the others around me, I decided to lie back on the ground. Coming from the New York, New Jersey area you never see all the stars that are in the sky due to refractive lights of the big cities. But out here between a jungle and a rubber tree plantation you get to see the Milky Way in its full splendor. I’m not sure if it was my missing of family and friends or if God was telling me in his own way that things would be okay. Looking up into the night sky I saw the most beautiful sight I have ever seen in my life. On the ceiling of our open air church was the same scene the shepherds must have seen two thousand years before, the only thing missing was the star of Bethlehem. The grandeur of the Milky Way in that black sky was absolutely breathtaking. Every Christmas Eve when my family and I go to Mass, inevitability sometime during the service I drift back to that magical Christmas Eve. so many years ago and so far away I'm still filled with a joy only that Christmas could deliver. This year more than any other, I would like to take the opportunity to wish everybody; especially our young men and women of the armed forces a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and that they may feel the magic of that special Christmas.

Robert Kickenweitz
11th ACR HQ & HQ Troop
Oct 66 - Sep 67
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