Christmas ‘like any other day’ for U.S. troops downrange

[unhappycamper]

Sgt. Mike Dean, 28, of Hamilton, Ohio, Sgt. Wade Pommer, 27, of Bowler, Wis., and Spc. Jordan Carpenter, 21, of Bartlett, Tenn., eat Subway sandwiches for a late Christmas Day lunch on the boardwalk at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. The three soldiers said they would probably eat traditional Christmas dinner at the mess hall later in the evening.


Christmas ‘like any other day’ for U.S. troops downrange
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, December 26, 2008

BAGHDAD — The scents of candied yams, turkey, ham and other ingredients for a Christmas feast waft through the bottom floor of Joint Security Station Comanche. Cards from home decorate the walls. Lights twine around the staircase railing.

Sleepy eyed soldiers slowly emerge from the crowded rooms they share. The platoon was up until the early morning on a patrol, now they’re headed out again. In full battle rattle, the soldiers troop right past all the festive trappings and get ready for another day’s work in Baghdad’s Sadr City district. This is Iraq, after all, and the holiday spirit only goes so far.

The morose feelings are something no one really talks about. Soldiers being soldiers, they ease the tensions by joking about the situation. Much of the humor is dark: Radio reports that a roadside bomb hit Rudolph, a target packet drawn up on Santa Claus as if he were another enemy fighter.

"Happy birthday Jesus," patently irreligious soldiers shout to each other.

Few are fooled.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59628