As we enter the Christmas season, I’d like to share stories from people who were away from home and family on Christmas, because they were deployed. I’m calling it Christmas On Deployment, and I’m asking veterans, active duty military personnel, law enforcement and first responders to share their experiences and their feelings. It’s an effort to give Americans an idea of the price paid for our freedom.
“… but also all the missed births, birthdays, graduations, weddings etc. These extract a price. But it’s a price that the majority of troops pay willingly in service to their country.”
We talk of that price, and we think we know about it. We frequently miss the finer points of it, though. One of my correspondents, Gus, wrote the following.
Christmas On Deployment in Viet Nam
“I was in Nam for Christmas 68, Army. Spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning out on patrol. We came back to the firebase in the afternoon to turkey dinner, hot showers and MAILCALL!”
Marine Corporal Larry G. Nabb (Brush, Colorado) Reads in Front of a Christmas Tree, Quang Tri, Vietnam, 1968
That was all he had to say about a dangerous patrol in a dangerous year. But listen to what he says next:
“My first Christmas back in Boston wasn’t until 72. In all those missed holidays I remember the loneliness of missing loved ones, family traditions and festivities. I think the one thing I would like to see conveyed in your writings is that sacrifice our troops endure when deployed away from home. I don’t mean just during the holiday season, but also all the missed births, birthdays, graduations, weddings etc. These extract a price. But it’s a price that the majority of troops pay willingly in service to their country. Thank you for your support of those who are deployed.”
That’s what I’m trying to convey: “the loneliness of missing loved ones, family traditions and festivities…. not just during the holiday season, but also all the missed births, birthdays, graduations, weddings etc….”
Unwavering Valor: Bataan Death March, Hell Ships
I’ll include an excerpt from Unwavering Valor, a book by Judge William Garner, a former F-4 fighter pilot who fought in the Korean War as a Marine Corps captain. He wrote it about his friend, Clarence Bramley, a survivor of the Bataan Death March and the “hell ships” of World War II.
Bramley took comfort in his religious learning, and came eventually to forgive the evil
Clarence had volunteered for the Army Air Corps in early 1941. He entered service as a plane armorer two weeks after his youngest brother was killed in an auto-bicycle accident, but was proud to serve. He spent his first Christmas, 1941, in Manila just before moving to Bataan on New Year’s Eve.
Bramley’s second and third Christmas, 1942 and 1943, were spent in Cabanatuan Camp 1, a Japanese prison camp in Luzon. He had survived the Death March, but had gone nearly blind while working in a labor camp. The blindness and accompanying sunstroke probably saved his life, because they caused him to be transferred to a rudimentary medical facility.
American POW’s During the Bataan Death March
At the prison camp, the brutality of the guards was shocking. He remembered seeing “a guard swaggering while holding aloft on his bayoneted rifle the severed head of a prisoner.” He thought angrily, how can men treat other men so? But Bramley took comfort in his religious learning, and came eventually to forgive the evil he had seen.
He was treated by other prisoners as a kind of chaplain, because he prayed every morning and night. His Christmas memories for those years was scant, and general. If the prisoners were in the main camp near Christmas, “they were able to hear references to them in the regular Sunday services. Otherwise, the men would simply remind each other of the occasion and express their best wishes.”
Bramley spent Christmas 1944 on a work detail in Formosa (Taiwan), in a brief period on land between two “hell ships.” He spent a total of 4 months on those ships, minus about 3 weeks in Taiwan. He had no memory of Christmas that year.
Send In Your Stories of Christmas On Deployment
Most experiences are not as dramatic as Bramley’s, of course. As I speak to veterans about this topic, almost all 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. I will mix in some dramatic stories also, but 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? 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.
