Posted by
EWRoss on Monday, December 14, 2009 7:00:00 AM
The first unit of the 30,000 troops
President Obama has ordered into Afghanistan,
1500 Marines from Camp Lejeune,
North Carolina, will arrive
before Christmas. Many of them have spent Christmas away from home before in Afghanistan
or Iraq.
They'll join thousands of others who have done the same. It goes with the
territory. It's no big deal, unless it's your first time.
For me that first time was
Christmas 1966. A brand new 2nd LT assigned to the reactivated 9th Infantry
Division at Ft. Riley, Kansas,
six months earlier, I deployed on 2 December with the 3rd Brigade aboard the
USNS General William Weigal out Oakland,
California. Twenty-one days later
we moved by truck convoy from the port
of Vung Tau, South Vietnam, to the 9th's new base camp at
Bearcat southeast of Saigon. I spent Christmas
eve sitting on a sandbag wall, cleaning my M-16 rifle, looking up at the stars,
and thinking about my family 11,000 miles away. I'll never forget that lonely
night because it made me aware of what Christmas is really all about--family,
friends, and shared beliefs.
A lot has changed in 44 years--the troops today have have email, cellphones, digital
pictures, and video. What hasn't changed is that America's young
men and women must still go in harms way to defend our freedom. Remember our
troops this Christmas. They'll be thinking about us.
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