Christmas – For Troops In A Country At War

As you read this, almost certainly safe & sound wherever you are please, please remember that all over the world there are those standing guard.  Keeping watch so that others can gather to enjoy some holiday events/festivities.  And in some place, doing so much more.  Ukraine is a country at war, fighting off an illegal invasion from a cruel, brutal enemy.  One that has threatened not just their neighbors and Europe but the entire free world for long than most reading this have been alive.  They aren’t just standing guard – the are fighting on all our behalf.  The need our help and have asked for it – with the exception of asking for troops.  All they ask is for resources, weapons and other support and they will take it from there.  They are, on behalf of Europe and the free world literally standing in the proverbial breach.  So when anyone, regardless of whether you’re in this country or another question why we should continue giving aid to Ukraine it’s because THEY are fighting, suffering and dying on our behalf too.  Making sure that the once vaunted “Red Bear” never again is able to threaten its neighbors, our allies and free countries.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqgo26Fo_28

This isn’t the first year I’ve looked for a specific photo of a memory I have of the evening news during Vietnam.  Or searched YouTube for a clip of it.  But since Ann Margaret often closed shows for the troops singing Silent Night the one I found from Pinterest will have to do.

There are Christmases experienced by those at war average folks are at least aware of, even if they don’t remember many of the details.  Perhaps the most notable and known one was the famous Christmas Truce on the front lines in WWI in 1914.   There have of course been other cease-fire truces on Christmas, even officially agreed upon by warring combatants.  Sadly in so many instances the tragedy of war continues, often unabated in even small ways.   I must ad that even our own country has a mixed history on this.  From early in school we are shown that painting of George Washington leading his troops, in that boat crossing the Delaware River.  (The painting wasn’t at all like it really was)  It was a celebrated action, and if the imagery was bogus the timing and scale of Washington and his men in the Battle of Trenton glosses over the fact is the Battle of Trenton was conceived and planned to take advantage of the Hessian forces being caught off-guard due to what was sure to be overindulgence in their celebrating Christmas.  Sure enough King George’s feared Hessian mercenaries spent Christmas stuffing themselves and indulging in some serious drinking.  Enough they slept in the next morning and even those without hangovers mostly had to be roused from a sound sleep when the attack by Washington began.  So, our own country exists in part due to taking advantage of an enemy celebrating Christmas.

The point though is that many a country where Christianity is common makes an effort to allow those fighting wars, even on or very close to front lines a bit, even if only an hour of respite.  Sometimes great effort is expended to provide a good, warm meal.  Gatherings for a “feast” and even entertainment if relatively safe from front lines has become common even in countries where war has been raging.  People of my age (mid sixties) grew up knowing Bob Hope would be in some faraway place (like Vietnam, but we knew he’d been to many other war torn places including during actual wars) providing some entertainment for the troops.  Which leads me to why I’m writing this.

In 1968, and even 1969 it seemed the war in Vietnam would never end.  I come from a small town in southern Illinois and can still remember the shock when a classmate’s older brother, a Marine was killed outside Da Nang in 1965 when LBJ started ramping things up. (At Westmoreland’s urging)  I had already known even at that young age people who had died, and suddenly I might add.  But in the latter part of the decade as I approached my teenage years I, like my friends (lower middle-class white boys – favorites of local draft boards) kind of figured that once we graduated high school we’d be drafted (if we didn’t volunteer to have at least a minor if futile say in the matter) and wind up in Vietnam.  So, I paid attention to the good ole evening news.  Usually CBS (Cronkite) in our house.

I can still think back and recall a broadcast this time of year which concluded with a piece a bit longer than normal.  The venerable Bob Hope was well-known and beloved for giving up his Christmases with home and family, choosing instead to wrangle famous entertainers (and times being what they were the “hot” women willing to go on the tours) to also give up the holiday to head so many thousands of miles from home and provide, if only for a couple of hours a slice of home for war-weary soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines – as well as civilians that supported them I might add.  But most of those in attendance at the shows were the ones who faced actual war.  Who put in time “ass-in-the-grass” as the saying went.

While tours of war zones took place at other times of the year, Christmas shows almost always ended with Silent Night.

Christmas while at war or living in a war zone is incongruous to say the least.  Especially when so many of the combatants including I might add on both sides of the war were Christians.  Taking a bit of time to in some way mark Christmas, and therefore the birth of “The Prince of Peace” is three kinds of weird but it happens every year there’s a war going on somewhere which sadly is most years.  I supposed there’s something to be said for the concept that however humble a Christmas “celebration” might be when in a war zone it was good to remember there is something better one can hope to fully enjoy with family and friends again someday.

But the telecast way back in the 1960s I remember haunts me every year.  As Silent Night was being sung (I don’t remember who was singing or if it was the entire cast) there was a TV cameraman on the stage, and the shots of the audience told vivid stories.  As the camera panned the audience some quietly sang along.  Others just sat in varied states of I don’t know what.  Remembering home. Remembering fallen comrades.  Hoping they’d make it through their tour and next year being at home.  Different faces (with some close-ups) and surely a lot of intensely personal thoughts.  Lots of shots of that audience, close up and wide angle to show a pretty large group.

And then came that moment that even now brings tears to my eyes.  The camera lifted up to a far away hillside and the camera guy dialed in as close as his lens would allow which wasn’t very close.  Way out there, all alone on the top of the ridge was one single guy.  A sentry standing post, with his rifle on his hip.  Even then, at an event like that someone had to stand guard.  Maybe he got stuck with the duty for some reason.  Maybe he was a good leader and volunteered so someone else could be in the actual “arena” for the show.  Who knows?

But he was out there, all alone.  Keeping watch.  Someone had to look out to make sure no enemy was trying to sneak up close enough to launch rockets or mortars.  Or some group readying a direct attack.  Christmas after all meant nothing to our enemy in Vietnam.  Even those raised Catholic (the French colonization) probably saw the holiday as more of a chance to pull a stunt.

So each year I take some time to think of the faces of those troops, but more so that lonely sentry out there standing guard to make their show a bit safer for them to enjoy.

Please.  Take a little time and remember that there are all too many people both combatants and civilians suffering in war zones, trying to grab on to just a little peace, if only a few minutes during immense hardship and suffering.  That for some (always too many) those few moments might be the last time they celebrate Christmas.  Or get to do so with loved ones.  And even for those safe from fighting but who have loved ones and friends caught up in some war someplace, especially this year in Ukraine many will never have a Christmas with a given loved one(s) again.

The human species hasn’t evolved anywhere near quickly enough.  Until it does, Christmas will always be colored in part by the tragedy of war.  And some, right down to a lonely sentry on a hill far from an event that’s supposed to give him/her a little bit of “Christmas from  home” will be out there.

Christmas for me, even in my agnosticism is a time of hope and renewal.  And what I hope for is somehow, someday the time will come when no one, soldier or civilian is being confronted directly by the ravages of war during the time when Christians (and others) mark the birth of “The Prince of Peace.”

Silent Night in Vietnam, 1968.wmv – YouTube