“A Kunsan Christmas” is the fifth article in the Christmas On Deployment series, where veterans, active duty military personnel, law enforcement and first responders share their experiences. It’s an effort to give Americans an idea of the price paid for our freedom. The first four articles are here, here, here and here. This installment tells a completely different sort of story – an “enlisted man’s officer” who looked out for his troops on Christmas.
A Kunsan Christmas, Kunsan Air Base, 2016
When Thomas was on assignment last year at Kunsan Air Base as part of the 8th Fighter Wing, he vowed that he would avoid what had happened on his previous Christmas deployment. He had been at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in 2012, and said one day was pretty much like any other. He had been able to Skype his parents, but other than that it was difficult to distinguish which day was Christmas Day.
Thoughtful officers, planning ahead, made a very nice memory for hundreds of people.
“No matter where I am, I always stay in touch with my family. It’s a big family, too: my Dad has 11 siblings. He and 5 siblings were Marines. One of his brothers was killed in Bien Hoa, Vietnam. Dad didn’t serve in-country, because he was the youngest of the brothers, and all the others were assigned there.”
“We always stay in touch, and never feel far from one another, because we’re always just a phone call or FaceTime away. We always call and email. It is so good to touch base with family, to get my mental compass set, and then press on.”
“My grandfather was in the Air Force during the Fifties, up through 1963. I stay in touch with him via snail mail. He sends me care packages with things from home: preserved bacon, energy bars, sweet tea packets, Gatorade. We’re from southern Indiana, which is north of the Mason-Dixon Line, but culturally is in the South.”
A Fun Day
“In Kunsan, I didn’t want troops sitting around feeling bad because they were away from home on Christmas. I felt very close to my CO – he was a real mentor, like a father figure to me – but I also felt close to the troops. We looked at all the resources around us, and decided to make it a fun day.”
“We looked at all the resources around us, and decided to make it a fun day.”
“Before Christmas Day, we got together with our Korean colleagues to celebrate a combined holiday dinner. We had an enormous buffet in an old storage building. Some of the sergeants had built a bar, and had some liquor. We had lights, a smoke machine, a TV and a sound system.”
“Everyone came in nice clothes – suits and dresses, which gave it more of a special occasion. We played games: simple things, like filling in the next line of an old Christmas song. We had a big gift raffle, where everyone put their raffle ticket in a bucket in front of the prize they wanted. Some people went straight for the big items, like a television or a PlayStation, but others chose smaller items with a better chance of winning.”
“The real highlight was that we had people from all over the U.S. and Korea, because it’s a combined USAF and Korean Air Force (KAF) base. That meant everyone brought food and traditions from their home areas. The officers brought turkeys and hams. The Koreans brought traditional food they eat at Chusok, their Thanksgiving/harvest festival holiday.”
Lotte World
“On Christmas Day, a bunch of us went to a huge theme park in Seoul, called Lotte World. It’s like Disney World, or Six Flags. We wore civilian clothes, chartered a bus, got up at about 04:00, and showed up just as they opened.”
“Because we were there so early, there were no lines. We just went from one ride to another, and got through the whole park. When other people started showing up at around 11:00, it got so crowded that the lines were over 3 hours long, so we went to a nearby mall.”
“There’s a giant mall connected to Lotte World via underground tunnels. They were meant to be subway tunnels, but the subway was never completed. The mall is huge – over 400 stores and retail establishments – and we spent the rest of the day there. We stayed until evening, then took the bus back to Kunsan and got in around midnight.”
“It was actually a very fun day.”
Not all Christmas On Deployment stories are sad. Thoughtful officers, planning ahead, made a very nice memory for hundreds of people.
Send In Your Stories of Christmas On Deployment
Your experiences may or may not be dramatic. Most veterans say the same thing: some variation of “Oh, you know, it wasn’t very interesting, nothing really happened.” They don’t understand what civilians want to know.
… their families and friends want to know about their lives. So do the strangers who pray every night, asking God to protect our troops.
All deployed troops long for letters from home. Any letters – even those with only newsy bits about family and friends. Those newsy bits help them feel connected to home, to the things they are fighting for.
In the same way, their families and friends want to know about their lives, even the times when nothing really happened. So do all the strangers in America who pray every night, asking God to protect our troops. These stories are for them. What I’m looking for is to reflect the totality of the experience.
What did you do on Christmas Eve on a base in Viet Nam or Afghanistan, Iraq or Incirlik? On Christmas Day on an aircraft carrier or a destroyer? What made it difficult, and more important, what made it bearable? What would you like your kids, your parents, your brother, to know about your deployment? Please email me your stories at [email protected] and I will retell them here. If you include your contact information, I will reach out and interview you. Help those who support our troops, pray for our troops, and thank you for your service understand what they are thanking you for. Thank you.
