Christmas '67 came along and I was a platoon Sergeant in the !/27th Infantry (Wolfhounds). My platoon was protecting a fire support base with 5 105 howitzers on it. The afternoon mail came in and I received a package from some Franciscan Nuns that contained cookies (crumbled), popcorn and three orange juice cans with duct tape on the ends. There was also a can of BROWN Kiwi Polish in the package along with some pre-sweetened Kool-aid.
I opened an orange juice container and discovered tht it contained an airline bottle of Vodka. The other two cans also had Vodka in them.
Well, I mixed some of the Kool-aid with the three bottles of Vodka and had a good Christmas. When I was high, I shined my naked Jungle Boots with the BROWN Kiwi Polish. The first sergeant came to the field the next morning (Christmas) and kept shaking his head at my boots.
ZonieDiver
12-19-2008, 15:11
Two stand out in my mind - though neither can be classified as "downrange":
1) Being told in December 1970 while in H Company for Weapons training that I was to be one of the few not granted leave over Christmas - even though I had taken no leave since entering the Army in January. Then, a couple days before Christmas at around 5:00 p.m. being one of several called in the the 1SG and told to "go". Packing quickly, sharing a cab to Raleigh-Durham airport with one each Engineer and Medic trainees. Getting on a TWA flight to St. Louis' Lambert Field with a reservation and then "stand-by" from there. Flight to Kansas City, one of a few stand-bys to get on - military and college students. Kansas City's airport was packed. The flight to Amarillo was pretty full. There were more than a dozen stand-bys, including me and two other Army types in uniform. The midnight departure of the flight approached, and the gate agent - a middle-aged man - was going off duty. When the new one came on - a younger guy - the older guy said, "We have all these stand-bys, but those three (pointing to the three of us sitting together) get on first. Got it?!?" And we did. I made it home for Christmas, after stops in Amarillo and Albuquerque. If felt good.
2) Christmas, 1971 at Ft. Kobbe, CZ. Those of us who didn't have leave loaded up a Duece and a half with presents and drove it to a Panamanian village on the far side of Venado DZ, near the beach. We had the crankiest SSG in the US Army - a short, round-bellied, Puerto Rican (he filled out the suit best) - act as Santa Claus and pass out the presents to the kids. It is when I first saw the magic of that Santa suit. SSG Davila looked NOTHING like Santa - but the sparkle in those kids eyes said they believed he was. And, for that day, he was.
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