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Christmas in Combat By Don Vaughan The holiday season often is a lonely time for military personnel — and even more so during wartime. The homesickness that comes with being thousands of miles from family and friends is compounded by fear and dread as servicemembers prepare to do battle during a season when peace and love normally are celebrated. But war rarely stops for the holidays, and neither do those who fight it. Some of the photographs and stories on these pages are dramatic, others inspirational. All demonstrate how servicemembers often face harsh conditions to ensure the next holiday will be spent not in some foreign land, but in the company of those they love most. Maj. Bill Breeze, D Company, 140th Aviation Division, USA, 2003.We were stationed in Bagram, Afghanistan, and some of the soldiers wanted to do something to keep the troops motivated during the holidays. We had held our own version of a Macy’s parade at Thanksgiving, and it was so popular we decided to have a parade on Christmas Day as well. We put out flyers explaining the celebration and ended up with approximately 20 floats, all based on military vehicles. The Air Force personnel, for example, built an a-10 on top of a John Deere Gator, and the medical hospital had Santa and Mrs. Claus on the back of [a light medium tactical vehicle]. We also broadcast holiday music from a Humvee mounted with large speakers. We held the parade on what we called Disney Drive, a 2-mile stretch named after Jason Disney, the first soldier killed in action in Afghanistan. I estimate between 500 and 1,000 people lined the route. It put smiles on everyone’s faces; you could see in their eyes that for that moment, they weren’t in Bagram, away from their families. Afterwards, we hosted a Christmas dinner and gave away stockings filled with gifts. The wife of CWO4 John Hook made personalized stockings for all 70 soldiers in our unit, and Realty Concepts of Fresno, Calif., also mailed individual presents to each of them. For dinner we provided 2,400 hand-rolled tamales made from ingredients sent to us by El Cholo, a restaurant in Los Angeles, and Bobby Salazar’s in Fresno. All of this brought Christmas home to our soldiers and took their minds off being away from their loved ones. For a few hours, everyone felt a little less homesick. — Breeze is stationed in Kuwait. Cpl. Brett G. Coughlin, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Delta Company, USMC, 1990.I was stationed at Camp Schwab in Okinawa when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. We shipped out a few days later and landed in Saudi Arabia Sept. 13. We trained for months in the desert near the neutral zone between Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq.
The second week in December my loader, Lance Cpl. Ian Morris, received a package from his parents containing the top 3 feet of a live Christmas tree. We set it up at the entrance of the radar netting covering our tanks, and on Christmas Eve we decorated it with tinsel and put our presents around it. That night we also enjoyed some 151-proof rum that someone had sent us in a mouthwash bottle.
The next morning, I was jolted awake by a strange noise. I thought an Iraqi soldier had entered our perimeter, so I grabbed my m-16 and ran around to the other side of the tanks — to find a camel eating our little Christmas tree for breakfast! It startled when it saw me, pulled the tree from its moorings, and ran off into the desert with the tree in its mouth and tinsel trailing behind it. I was so mad I seriously considered shooting it in its tracks. The only thing that stopped me was a standing order that anyone who shot a camel would be court-martialed.
It’s funny now, but it wasn’t at the time. It was hard being in Saudi Arabia, and we were all ready to do what had to be done or go home. A short time later, Taskforce Ripper, which we were part of, liberated Kuwait City without taking any casualties.
— Coughlin lives in Bethesda, Md. Capt. David Baur, Detachment 3, 38th Air Rescue Squadron, USAF, 1966.I was a helicopter pilot stationed at the Ubon Royal Thai Air Base in Ubon, Thailand. We were all pretty glum as Christmas approached, so Col. Daniel “Chappie” James, who later became the first black four-star general, decided to cheer us up. On Christmas morning, parked across from the Officer’s Club, we saw a vehicle used to upload ordnance under aircraft had been transformed into Santa’s sleigh, complete with five painted plywood reindeer led by Rudolph. It looked just beautiful.
Atop the sleigh was Santa, played by a lieutenant who had just transferred into the wing. Chappie also had enlisted our four smallest fighter pilots to play elves. Their costumes were great, right down to the curl-toed shoes.
Chappie showed up, and off they went to distribute cookies and candy to every American installation and shop on the base. When they were finished, they visited personnel with the Royal Australian Air Force, who were there under a SEATO agreement.
After lunch there was a loud commotion outside the Officer’s Club. Outside, there were three or four Australians in a fire truck. They had decided that the Yanks needed snow for Christmas, so they foamed everything in sight! Chappie thought that was terrific and ordered the Australians into the Officer’s Club, where he joined them for several drinks. A short time later the commander of the Australian attachment came over to apologize for the actions of his men. Chappie told him how much he appreciated their thoughtfulness and invited the commander to join him for a drink, too.
All of this demonstrated to me what a compassionate man Chappie James was. What he did really boosted morale at the base. Everyone was up after that.
— Baur lives in San Antonio. Capt. Howard Ellsworth, U.S. Army Air Corps, 1944.I had just dropped a load of napalm on a rail yard east of Aachen, Germany, when antiaircraft fire struck the left engine of my p-38, forcing me to bail out. I landed safely but was taken prisoner by German soldiers and marched to a small airfield called Sohie Bslad. I was interrogated, then put to work filling the craters made by Allied bombers.
On Dec. 26, my fifth day of captivity, a group of German Me-262s landed just as Allied b-17s began bombing. A German pilot leaped from his cockpit and sprinted for cover, leaving his plane running. Quickly I climbed in and pushed the throttles full open. The engines began to scream and the plane accelerated as guards shot at me. I lifted the plane off the ground but kept it low to avoid fire.
I couldn’t read the instruments or raise the landing gear, and the canopy, which was open when I got in, had torn away. Luckily, the compass was readable, and I soon crossed into friendly territory. Almost immediately I came under heavy fire. I closed the throttles and landed on a small hillside.
I was greeted by an Army truck filled with troops. The second lieutenant advised me I was under arrest for impersonating an American pilot. Several soldiers suggested I immediately be shot as a spy. I quickly explained my situation, asked to use the phone, and called the 474th Fighter Group Operations. Eventually, I was retrieved and returned to base. After being debriefed about the German jet, I returned to my squadron on the evening of Dec. 31.
— Ellsworth lives in Alexandria, Va. |
