Unless you have ever served in the military it is hard to understand what the soldiers, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard personnel and Naval forces are feeling. Yes, they are all volunteers now, unlike when I first enlisted the military had many draftees in it, and it was the "unluck" of the draw wether you had to accept the "invitation of your neighbors" to be able to "serve your nation".
The military is still a difficult place to be during the holidays, made even worse if you are in a "hostile area" these days they include Iraq, Afghanistan and the border of Korea. There are also forces in places most of us can't even pronounce. There are troops in safer places but still far from home, Germany, Japan, embassies all around the world that have Marine guards.
I spent many holidays in other nations during my Army service, the most memorable night was Christmas Eve, 1975, I was on a night patrol on the DMZ fence in Korea, it was cold freezing cold, there is a reason the place is called the "Frozen Chosin" it feels like the inside of a walk in meat freezer during the winter and add a 30 mph wind.
We were walking east along the fence on our side of the border and we came upon a North Korean patrol walking west, I don't remember who threw the first snowball, but soon all of the loacked and loaded weapons were laying on the ground and the air was full of snowballs flying over and thru the barb wire. They were laughing, we were laughing and for about twenty minutes no one was thinking about shooting anyone, we were a bunch of teen agers having fun, and it did not seem wierd at the time.
Forget the fact that there were patrols every night of the year on both sides of the fence, by American forces and North Koreans, occasionally something would happen that would cause a fire fight. These mostly occurred when we caught them attempting to sneak agents thru the border into South Korea, it happened more frequently than one would think. The shooting would start when they wanted to help their agent get back to the North.
There were a lot of incidents at Panmunjom in 1975-1976, it made a lot of young men realize they were not immortal and people did get hurt or killed at a young age. I think back now and realize what I was really doing back then, "growing up" I went to Korea a teenager and came back a man, many American soldiers did over the years, and I get the impression there are still teenagers going to Korea and coming back men, or they are now going to worse places as teenagers and seeing far worse than I did 35 years ago, and coming back men.
My thoughts are of them and their families and how they miss each other and the attempts to get a phone line or now a computer link to send either IMs or an e mail or if they are really lucky get a skype hook up so they can actually see each other. 35 years ago we thought we were doing great to get a MARS call thru from Korea home, that is where ham radio operators pick up the calls in California and call your home and ask them if they will take a collect call from the ham radio operator and they put the call thru the radio, you have to learn to say over a lot and at the right times, but we didn't have the internet back then and forget a calling card. Some USO's had phone booths where you could make a call home, but it was really expensive.
Regardless of the year or the war, or what country the military person is stationed in, or where their ship may be, troops miss being home for the "normal activities" they would be doing with the family, or skipping to go party with their friends.
I spent 15 years in all over two wars in Army service, Vietnam and Gulf War one, during the Gulf War my kids learned what it was like to be without a parent home for the holidays and for their birthdays. Too many people don't think about how the deployments affect the spouses and kids left at home, I never had before GW1, I didn't realize the pain it caused my mom and dad, until I had the pain as a parent, of making my kids miss me. The entire family is affected especially over the holidays.
My prayers now are for all of them, the deployed and their families, and now I make donations to the USO for the holidays, they do a lot to help the troops all year round and it is one of the best charities I can think of at this holiday. Link to the USO website, learn what they do thank you
Merry Christmas to all and if you do not celebrate Xmas have a great 25th of December anyway.