Military Christmas tribute: I'll Be Home For Christmas

That was great. As a Navy Vet who spent Thanksgiving and Christmas aboard a submarine at sea, I always considered myself fortunate to have a hot meal even though I was away from home and family. As a civilian DoD specialist thirty years later, I experienced Christmas at Fallujah, Iraq in 2007. I was with a logistics team headed by a Marine gunnery sergeant (left side in the avatar with me on the right) who decided to do up Christmas for his Marines and the civilian foreign nationals in his small command. After swinging a deal with the DFAC manager for some hot turkey, gravy, dressing, curried veggies (popular with south-Asians), near-beer, fruit and desserts, he launched into a questions and answers discussion of "What Christmas means to me." As a Christian with Middle Eastern roots, I sort of cringed since I knew that some of the south-Asian workers were Muslims. To my pleasant surprise, the Muslims among them explained that, though they did not fully understand Christianity, or comprehend all of what they did know, they said they knew how important it was for many of us and that the God of Abraham knows more than any man on Earth. They then gathered around and ate at the same table with us, Christians and Muslims together. A couple even went to camp church services with us the next morning, though more as curious spectators than participants. We were not allowed to promote any religious beliefs, but we could provide a good example by our actions. I hope all is well with the foreign nationals who served in our efforts in Iraq and with the military and civilian personnel who contributed so much in what appears to be a successful mission.

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Richard Samuel Najjar January 29, 2011 at 8:06pm

That was great. As a Navy Vet who spent Thanksgiving and Christmas aboard a submarine at sea, I always considered myself fortunate to have a hot meal even though I was away from home and family. As a civilian DoD specialist thirty years later, I experienced Christmas at Fallujah, Iraq in 2007. I was with a logistics team headed by a Marine gunnery sergeant (left side in the avatar with me on the right) who decided to do up Christmas for his Marines and the civilian foreign nationals in his small command. After swinging a deal with the DFAC manager for some hot turkey, gravy, dressing, curried veggies (popular with south-Asians), near-beer, fruit and desserts, he launched into a questions and answers discussion of "What Christmas means to me." As a Christian with Middle Eastern roots, I sort of cringed since I knew that some of the south-Asian workers were Muslims. To my pleasant surprise, the Muslims among them explained that, though they did not fully understand Christianity, or comprehend all of what they did know, they said they knew how important it was for many of us and that the God of Abraham knows more than any man on Earth. They then gathered around and ate at the same table with us, Christians and Muslims together. A couple even went to camp church services with us the next morning, though more as curious spectators than participants. We were not allowed to promote any religious beliefs, but we could provide a good example by our actions. I hope all is well with the foreign nationals who served in our efforts in Iraq and with the military and civilian personnel who contributed so much in what appears to be a successful mission.

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