Christmas Eve 1968, while at the Liberty Bridge compound, about 1800 We were sitting around playing some “back alley bridge” when our platoon sgt walked into the hooch and said that he had a gift for us. From behind his back he pulled out a bottle of what turned out to be Jack Daniels (Maybe Jim Beam don’t know for sure anymore) I Had to go on watch at 2000 on the perimeter. Took one sip and thought , at the time, that was it. I had the watch in the 50. Cal.bunker with 2 other guys and it was getting close to the end of my watch when off in the distance, on the other side of the river, toward the location of the “Alamo”, red and green cluster pop-ups were being shot off. There was no gunfire so we assumed it was to celebrate the Holiday. Someone on our line decided to return the same , much to the dismay of the OD.I returned to the hooch just a little past midnight I thought everyone was asleep then I heard some one say “Hey Har we saved you a shot it’s sitting buy your rack” found it in my cup next to my rack , smelled it first, shot it down said “Merry Christmas” and went to sleep . Just one of many memories that return from time to time.
Harry
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Thanksgiving and Christmas in the desert 1990. Alcohol was forbidden in Saudi Arabia but we had a pretty good feast on both holidays. I was in 1st LAI Tow plt. and we had everything from fruitcake to turkey breast in gravy. While Saddam’s guys were starving (according to the media) we were feasting. We had so much food that later we were forced to dig a pit and burn/bury the extra. On my first tour I was a regular ground pounder and I remember cringing as the big cans of fruit cocktail were tossed in the pit. (TOW means tired of walking)
Christmas 68, Delta 1/9, we were at a fire support base near the Rockpile. The OP on top the Rock fired off several green and red flares , my squad was on the line facing the Rockpile, so we answered with some of our flares. Made it a little more merry for a bunch of home sick Marines at Christmas time.
That brought back some old memories of being in Dong Ha, Vietnam in 1967 for Christmas. Except we had a bottle of Hiram Walker to share in our hotch as a result of incoming rockets hours before. That was a party that will never be forgotten.