Iraq: Christmas Eve

December 24, 2009
Christmas eve in a Muslim land.

Embedded with the Chaplin… yes, sounds strange to me too.

Here he is walking to service:

Two schools:  Christmas on the battlefield is best ignored, or fully embraced. Our convoy of MRAPs (Mine Resistant something something’s) and HMMWVs (HighMobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle… aka: Humvees) drove from base to a joint forces outpost to deliver cheer — in this case a large plasma TV for Xbox tournaments. They were glad to see the Chaplin, he came with some promised bibles, they were very happy to see the TV (Tele-vision).  Two frozen turkeys started thawing as well.

“Shotgun Santa” (1:31 mp3):

Wandering around base I found Santa with a shotgun defending a stash of presents sent from the states by organizations and school children who would pee just seeing this Clause.  Everyone was peeing themselves laughing, I recorded him: “Merry Christmas Mother F…”  He does the gun loading move for the F part.  I too get stockings in the spirit of the season for there were far more stockings than troops in this section.

I miss my Grandmother, inside is what she used to get me for Christmas — everything from the pharmacy:

• Road and Track magazine
• Deodorant
• Tin of tobacco chew
• Toothbrushes and paste
• Sox
• Handy wipes
• Detergent
• Q-tips

Oh, how silly I thought.  Then I picked-out the toothpaste because I was low.  Then the tissues because the desert/pollution sinuses I’ve gone through so many packs already.  I keep a pack of handy wipes because they’re so handy and I’m running out, the dust, oh the dust.  Sox sure I’m on my feet most of the day.  Lastly, I started reading an article in Road and Track about GPS navigators.

A card was at the bottom, drawn by a child, for a class project, tree penned in green, time was spent, an American flag, not colored within the lines, and a penciled letter cut and glued:

Thank You so much for serving for our country and keeping us safe. I appreciate you trying to keep everyone in America safe. Have a great Christmas. I hope you get to have a little celebration of Christmas. May we have peace on earth. From: Julia, Franklyn Elementary.

The other stocking of gifts I gave to an interpreter smoking outside his CHU (Container Housing Unit), just down from mine.  In the spirit of giving.

“Merry Christ…” I started. “A gift” I ended.  He was very happy, and so was I in the spirit of giving.

More Flickr pix.