This is the title of a song on a Christmas CD my kids gave to me a couple of years back. I was playing Christams songs on my i-pod and it came through loud and clear.....and brought back memories...not of trenches in Flanders, but of rice paddies in VietNam.

For those who served close enough to hear small arms fire.......

Do you remember how you spent Christmas in a combat zone? (of course you do.) I was thinking it might be of interest to others if we shared our stories of "Christmas in the Trenches".

Anyone interested?

Dave / Whiskey6

Christmas 1990. Was based at Elephant Pass on the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka. Got two cigarettes from my spotter as a present.

Christmas 1967 was spent at Cu Chi RVN with the 25th Inf Div. We had Bob Hope there with Anne Margret. Great show. As Bob and his crew tried to leave our Base Camp He received a present From The local Viet Cong in the way of a motor attack. We had to find him a new C 130 to fly out on as the one the USO had for him took a hit and grounded it. Still it was a great show.

Not a "combat zone" per se, but I can recall guard duty aboard the USS Wainwright on Christmas about 20 years ago.

Spent Christmas 1987 in Korea as a Cobra pilot in the 4/7 CAV, vaguely remember a big party...
Spent Christmas 1999 as an Apache pilot in Bosnia at Camp Comanche, I was on the QRF sitting standby with my 'stick' and my wing man and his front seater. As we had all flown together (USAR) for 7 years by then it was kind'a like having it with family except for the God awful non-alcoholic wine. New Years Eve I was on again but had a cold so I traded with another guy and pulled shift as the Flight Op's 'Battle Captain'. The Asst S3 and S2 wandered in along with the guys on QRF so I wouldn’t have to 'celebrate' alone. As New Years struck the whole sky lit up with tracer of 'celebratory fire' (mostly AKs) from all the local inhabitants around the base. We sat outside enjoying it until someone opened up with something in the 12.7 range just the other side of the fence. Somewhat disconcerting in an Aviation unit.
Christmas 2004 was spent in Kuwait, as the backup Apache Battalion on a short leash to surge north just prior to the first elections. Everybody in the company pooled their "care packages" while we watched videos. Two weeks later we staged north to Camp Speicher.

Christmas 1989 was in Lebanon. Spent the whole day searching for a clogged septic tank... The evening and night was on Checkpoint duty. Christmas dinner was a cold burger and an orange drink.
Christmas 1999 was in Kosovo. The whole day was used to patrol a small village. Freeze dried "Fish from Hell" for dinner.
Christmas 2003 was in Afghanistan. A quiet day without any incidents, but we got a proper Christmas dinner. After 3 months of eating cr*p from an Italian kitchen we got a real meal. It was most appriciated by the troops.

Erik

For Christmas, 1969, I was with Whiskey Btry, 1st Battalion, 11th Marines, 1st Marine Division on Hill 10, southwest of DaNang, VietNam. There was a "cease fire" starting at dusk on 12/24.....the NVA thought it was an invitation to infiltrate a couple of hundred infantry down "Charlie Ridge". They ran into a squad from 1st battalion of the 26th Marines. The Marines kept thier cool and whispered a fire mission to Lt. Bob Lowery, their company Forward Observer. Bob called in every artillery tube that could reach the ridge. We emptied our ammo bunkers on them, as did the other batteries.

When Bob went out on Christmas morning to get the body count....it was a tough job.....when the rounds with "quick" fuses hit the rock outcroppings, the rocks turned into shrapnel as well. The NVA bodies were ...it was bad! They counted over 200 identifiable bodies...plus parts.

On Christmas Day, we in the batteries sent our trucks to the ammo dump to refill the ammo bunkers. All hands turned to and humped ammo when the trucks returned. After we had finished loading the bunkers, we loaded about half the troops into the trucks and headed for DaNang for the Bob Hope show.

we didn't have tickets, so we climbed a good sized hill in front of the stag to get a peek at the show. When Connie Stevens sang "Bill"...I thought I had gotten a permanent hard-on. The impressed me most was when Neil Armstrong came out....the whole mountain moved as the Marines screamed and cheered.

After the show, we got back ion the trucks and headed back to Hill 10. When we got to Cobb Bridge, the CO of 1/26 called and ordered the truck to hold up and form a convoy. I was the senior Marine present, so i ended up being the convoy commander........rolling on a dirt road on black out lights..seating out the possibility of mines and ambushes. We were lucky.....there was contact nearby, but not on our roads. Unfortunately one of the truck drivers drove over a set of road wheels from an old blown-up amtrack (LVTP-5). the damned things got stuck between the rear duals and broke the drive shaft on the deuce and a half. I got my butt chewed for that!!...but the colonel got only scar tissue. (It's good to have a well-chewed ass sometimes.)


We sang our own in-country version of Jingle Bells:

Jingle bells
Mortar shells
VC in the grass
You can take your Merry Christmas
And shove it up your ass

I have sung it every year since.....its part of my tradition.
Merry Christmas!

Dave / Whiskey6

No trenches on carriers, but had the privilege of enjoying 3 different Bob Hope shows away from home.
The Unknown part to most, was the fact that we would not only have our off duty crew members at the show but also our escorts crew members, as they were either brought over by launch or helio.
We also didn't get Bob's show on Christmas day, but in the two week period before or after depending on our ports of call.