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Away for the Holidays: Reflecting Back on the Holidays While Serving in the Military

  • Writer: David Tierney
    David Tierney
  • 14 minutes ago
  • 3 min read

It was just before Christmas, 1990. I had been reassigned from the 7th Communication Battalion, where I and the Battalion had been attached to the III Marine Air Wing at Al Jubayl airfield in Saudi Arabia.

 

I was an enlisted Marine, recently promoted to Corporal with my stripes handed to me one day without ceremony, though with congratulations from the Staff Sergeant (I wondered if he just carried extra Corporal chevrons out there in the desert). I had already spent my 22nd birthday and Thanksgiving at Al Jubayl. Fortunately, the Wing served us thanksgiving dinner at their chow hall. Those were two reasons to be thankful: Thanksgiving dinner, of course (always my favorite), and the fact that the Air Wing had a chow hall. Where I was going soon would not have a chow hall.

 

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My reassignment attached me to I Marine Division Information Services Management Office (ISMO). When I arrived, the ISMO was at the Al Jubayl port (same city, but some miles from the airfield which had previously been my home) and we were soon going to be heading into the desert. Precisely where in the desert, we did not know. At my rank, of course, I was not allowed to know.

 

While we were waiting for the vehicles which would be taking us out there, we were in actual buildings. Conceptually, that this needs to be said is probably surprising to most civilians. But, it was the first time I had slept in a building in a couple of months. It didn't matter that the buildings were the pre-fabricated type (like fancy mobile homes), and we moved out soon enough.

 

Honestly, I don't even remember where I was when the day of Christmas actually came. We might have still been at the port, but I believe we might have already made our move to the desert. I don't remember a special meal. The usual meals with the Division out there in the desert were MREs or the once-a-day trucked-out rice-chicken-peas-carrots mixed muck some higher-up officer called "food". I don't remember special phone calls or a ceremony. It was a completely forgettable Christmas. A couple of weeks later, the air war against Iraq would begin but we didn't know that (for sure) then. After that, the ground war would begin, during which I would travel into Kuwait the night before the official start of the ground war and would spend several days sleeping in a foxhole. That probably didn't help with me remembering Christmas.

 

This is part of what it means to be in the military. Even those of us who have the least difficult of jobs - even those of us stationed in the United States - are often far from home on Holidays.

 

Some veterans will tell me about how they don't "deserve" benefits because they weren't in combat or because they served in peacetime. That is bullsh*t (sorry, you expected a Marine not to swear?). Whether you served in peacetime or war, whether you were drafted or volunteered, you regularly had to do something that, if given the choice, a reasonable person would have avoided.

 

So, think of those folks not at home during the winter holidays. They might be deployed to a desert halfway around the world, or they might be deployed in Oklahoma, but many won't be at home. And many might like to be home.


Here are some things you can do, as well:

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