Christmas Downrange?

[OIFDan]

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[f50lrrp]

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]

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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[Dozer523]

Santa

[OIFDan]

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