Christmas in their dreams
Jack Evensizer/Special to The Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years, 1 month AGO
America's sentinels of freedom are on duty this Christmas season. Our great military serves as an icon of freedom throughout the world. Those serving, and those who served before, have sacrificed so much to preserve the democracy we so enjoy. Families too have sacrificed to support their troopers in harm's way. Holiday dinners have vacant chairs. Unopened presents under the tree await the return of loved family members. The holidays are empty for troopers and their families, and prayers are abundant for the safe return of our warriors.
An article in the VFW magazine told of eight Americans killed in action in Vietnam on Christmas Day, 1968. My friend, Tim Sigler, was on duty then and related to his Christmas:
"On Christmas of 1968, I was a radio operator, with the 584th Engr. Company, in the central highlands of Vietnam. I was 19 years old. My parents sent me an artificial tree with lights and ornaments. I remember somebody in the company dressed up in a Santa Claus outfit (beard & all) and handed out candy canes. We had a large Christmas dinner that night, in the mess hall, including turkey and ham. Everyone received a package from home, with cookies and candy and we all shared. My parents also sent me Fizzies to put in the water. Fizzies was a water additive that they invented in the '60s and came in different flavors. It really didn't taste that good, but it tasted better than the drinking water in Vietnam, which for obvious reasons had more chemicals than a swimming pool. They apparently never thought to put it in any other water. A few months later I spent two weeks in the Pleiku hospital, with a parasite from the shower water. That's one way to lose weight!"
Glad you made it home my friend! Anybody remember having Fizzies parties?
Those who serve know the loneliness of being on duty for the holidays. Serving in our highly decorated 4th Infantry Division, Staff Sergeant Christopher Horan was on TOC (tactical operations center) duty Christmas Eve, 2005 in Iraq receiving and dispatching Red Cross messages. He related that "Christmas is just like another day. When you dwell on it, that's when you get homesick."
Recently promoted and Purple Heart recipient Sergeant First Class Eric Noble spent Christmas 2007 at FOB (forward operating base) Loyalty with our renowned 82nd Airborne. That is, only after he recovered from a blast from a roadside bomb that August which put him in a coma for two weeks. He was the only casualty in his HUMVEE, and says: "We were always out and about."
Sergeant First Class William Standridge was a "Screamin' Eagle" in our famous 101st Airborne Division in 2003, at Mosul, Iraq. His FISTER (fire support) team was part of 1/327 infantry known as the "Bastards of Bastogne." His nine-member team formed up around a HUMVEE with a "Merry Christmas" banner for a photo and used it as a Christmas card to send greetings to families at home.
How many stories are there, and how many are untold? One for each service member and certainly for each family. The loneliness of those on duty during the holidays can only be described by those who served. Our police, fire, first responders, hospital staff and many silent professionals on duty, serving selflessly here at home, or on a ship in a far away ocean, in a foxhole in a war zone, or flying missions can relate to this. When we are away from home at Christmas time we take comfort in thinking of this:
I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents under the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light beams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
Merry Christmas everybody, wherever you are!
Jack Evensizer is a Press correspondent and resident of Dalton Gardens.
ARTICLES BY JACK EVENSIZER/SPECIAL TO THE PRESS
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