Celebrating the holiday season away from home -- especially for the first time -- can be difficult. It can also be an adventure. For many service members, the most wonderful time of the year is full of tensions: missing family but creating familial bonds with friends; feeling the peace of Christmas Eve night while at war; sitting at the kids' table but feeling like an adult. Those paradoxes are what make for interesting, engaging tales.
We asked our readers to share their stories about celebrating the holiday season in uniform, and you responded with accounts of service and celebration. Here are 11 of the most memorable military holiday tales, as told by service members and veterans. You won't soon forget them.
Some selections have been edited for length and clarity.
Saudi Arabia, 1990
"It was Christmas in Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield, and we were all in 'Tent City-Seaside' at the Port of Dammam. There was a huge feast: the table of food and desserts went on for 100 yards or better. At the end of the big meal we were all in our tents relaxing, enjoying the downtime, and commiserating [about] being away from home. There were no phones to call home, nothing but writing letters (and we hadn't been there long enough for mail to catch up to us yet), so it was a lonely time.
"Suddenly, there was a noise outside the tent and people saying, in broken English, 'May we come in?' I opened the big flap to the tent, and there were about ten men with pies and cakes in their hands that they'd gotten from the tables, offering them up to us with big smiles. We were all a bit confused, but we let them in. One of the men spoke very good English, and he began to talk to us and started weeping. I took him by the shoulder, and he nearly fell into my arms. He fell to his knees and grabbed my legs and hugged me very tightly while mumbling things I couldn't understand. I finally got him at arm's length and asked him what was going on and why was he crying?
"After a few minutes, he was able to tell me that he was a Kuwaiti worker in the Saudi ports and that his family and the families of all of his friends were in Kuwait behind 'enemy lines.' He and the others wanted to thank us for being there to save their families and friends and they wanted to wish us a Merry Christmas. They were Muslim, but they wanted to wish us the best on the most important Christian holiday and thank us for coming to save their families.
"That was the most humbled that I have ever been in my whole life. Those men did everything they could to thank us and let it be known that they appreciated what we were doing. They went to every tent in the whole place -- and, believe me, there were a lot -- and thanked every soldier they could find.
"As Americans, we don't understand what it's like to lose our nation to an invader and to not know what is going on with our families while we're trying to support them. That day reminds me why I am blessed to be an American. I hope they found their families and that they all survived that war."
-- James, Army
Persian Gulf, 1987
"I was the Tactical Action Officer on watch on Christmas Day, 1987. An Iranian speedboat attacked South Korean tanker Hyundai No. 7 with rocket propelled grenades near Abū Mūsá, 20 miles southwest of Sharjah. Our ship, USS Elrod, launched Magnum 442, an SH-60B. Magnum 442 rescued 11 of the 20 crewmembers and flew them to British frigate Scylla.
"In the aftermath, as news helicopters circled, we wished everyone back home a Merry Christmas, which was rebroadcast on CNN throughout the day, and our crew unfurled a Merry Christmas banner that was on the front page of many newspapers."
-- Thomas, Navy
Somalia, 1992
"On Dec. 9, 1992, I was deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia as Commander of the 362nd Airlift Control Element, the air operations support forces for Operation Restore Hope. Conditions were the harshest, most austere any USAF unit had experienced in decades. After more than 2 weeks of extremely limited supplies of MREs and water, resting in a bombed out aircraft hangar, using a slit trench as our latrine facility, and working nearly around the clock, a C-5 arrived delivering a field kitchen and a Pan Am 747 brought pillows, newspapers, and several cases of Coca-Cola.
"We held a brief candle-light Christmas Eve service after covering holes in the sides of the hangar to hide from the snipers. On Christmas Day afternoon, the field kitchen was operational and we had our first hot meal. Around midnight, I laid my head down on a clean fluffy pillow for a few hours of much-needed sleep. The hot meal was a luxury, but the pillow remains the best Christmas present I have ever received."
-- Robert, Air Force
Dinner Table, 1997
"[I came] home after 13 months in Korea in 1997 [and was] still in uniform. My grandparents had the tree and decorations up in January. I sat at the kids table. I, of course, was used to it, and my WWll vet grandpa said, 'You're sitting next to me now. You more than earned the right. Get over here.' I had happy tears the rest of the day."
-- Scott, Army
Tampa, Florida, 1989
"In 1989, I was stationed at a reserve unit in Tampa, Florida. That Christmas the weather was freezing, and the system couldn't handle everyone with their heat on, so they implemented rolling black-outs. My apartment didn't have heat all Christmas Day, and I wasn't able to take leave to go home for Christmas. I spent the whole day alone -- in bed, under piles of blankets trying to stay warm."
-- Carol, Marine Corps
Berlin, 1980s
"Back in the '80s, I was stationed at Tempelhof Central Airport in Berlin, behind the Iron Curtain. I worked out at the Comm Center at Marienfelde, which was a 24/7 assignment. We were always short-handed because people kept losing their security clearances. It was a 9 on, 2 off schedule -- 3 days, 3 swings, 3 mids and 2 days off. One holiday season, our NCOIC [noncommissioned officer in charge] had had enough of our whining about missing Christmas morning with the kids, so he came up with a holiday schedule which included 2 weeks of 7 straight days/mids with 12-hour shifts and divided us in half. All the parents got the Christmas week off, and the single Airmen got the New Year's week off! It was the happiest I had ever seen the Comm Center. Everyone loved the idea. We had time to visit the Christmas markets, take the duty train into Frankfurt, visit East Berlin (in uniform, of course), etc.! Best holiday season ever without having to take official leave."
-- Nancy, Air Force
South Pacific
"[I] was one of the loadmasters [for] the annual Christmas Drop that is done in the South Pacific islands. It's unconventional because you never land at the places you drop stuff to, and the items/boxes really are not 'normal' air-drop items. It's even more fun when you see the islanders get what you drop. When we passed over they [were] all waving at us. We usually had Santa on the ramp waving back."
-- Michael, Air Force
Fort Jackson, SC
"I was a Private E-Nothing in Basic Training at Fort Jackson, S.C. They were closing the base down for Christmas. I had to borrow money from a friend for an airplane ticket home to Washington State.
"As I was standing in the check-in line at the airport, in my Class A uniform, it was announced that coach was overbooked, and I was scared that I would be stuck at the airport. But then the young man at the counter handed me a ticket: 'First class,' he said. I went home in first class with champagne, shrimp cocktail and chicken cordon bleu."
-- Elke, Army
Australia, 1986
"The guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes was making the first-ever Western Pacific/Indian Ocean deployment for an Aegis-equipped ship in 1986. As the first Ticonderoga-class ship in the Pacific Fleet, we got some plush port visits in between operations. We pulled into Freemantle, Australia shortly before Christmas 1986. A day or two after arrival, a woman walked up to me in a restaurant and called my name. She was my college suite-mate's former girlfriend, now married to the President of an America's Cup syndicate during the Louis Vuitton Challenge Cup races being held in Freemantle. From then on, it was, 'I'll show you my boat if you show me yours,' private clubs, Cup events, etc. It remains my best 'small world' story."
-- Conrad, Navy
Bosnia, 1997
"Christmas of 1997 was spent in Bosnia at Guardian Base. I assisted the Army Materiel Command Chaplain in conducting an Episcopal Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. After the service, I exited the chapel tent into the cold, clear Bosnian night. There was no moon, and the stars were bright. The ever-present sound of generators was conspicuously absent, as the generators near the Chapel had been turned off. As I stood in awe of the majesty of this winter night, another sound came to me. It was -- I hoped -- celebratory gunfire from the hills. Amid the joy of Christmas, I was brought back to the reality of being deployed in a hostile fire environment."
-- James, Army
Security Gate, 1979
"My first Christmas in the USAF was 1979. All the guys without families worked 12 on, 12 off so the others could spend Christmas with their kids. Christmas morning, I was assigned to the security gate at the housing area, which was quiet because everyone was home. About 10:00 AM, families started bringing me food and all kinds of cakes and cookies. The entire desk inside the gate shack was covered. When they called me on the radio to relieve me for lunch, I said, 'Don't bother.' I told them to send a unit to pick up all the goodies I had for CSC.
"It was quiet, and besides my radio, the gate shack had a telephone which only rang directly to the CSC desk. I played with it for about 15 minutes and ended up getting an operator to pick up. I explained where I was, and she said, 'I don't know how you got to me, but is there anywhere you want to call?' She connected me to my parents' telephone, so I talked with mom and dad. When I hung up, I picked up the receiver again and it rang to CSC."
-- Tim, Air Force
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