But...I very well remember the pain of looking out over the lights of Cam Ranh Bay, Viet Nam, on Christmas Eve, 1969, with an aching heart and a loneliness that was almost more than I could stand.
I remember standing in the snow on Christmas Eve, 1976, somewhere near the Fulda Gap, on guard duty, watching to make sure the Soviet hordes didn't choose the holiest of nights to invade Germany.
I remember the pain of standing in the jungle humidity, in Tegucigalpa, looking at the stars overhead, wondering if I was looking at the same ones that the Wise Men looked at, on a very lonely Christmas Eve and a particularly hard one for me, as my first-born son had been born a few days prior...and I was not there.
I had many of those lonely nights and days, alone, but really not alone, because I had the love of God and my brothers in arms beside me, and a loving family waiting for me to return.
Many a soldier has experienced that pain and many a soldier will experience it again.
I have never forgotten those emotions and feelings...I probably never will and I'm into my 60's now.
That's the main reason that I made a point to visit every soldier I had working under me, that had to work on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day.
I hope they knew that I was only trying to help shoulder just a little of that pain and loneliness that I knew they were feeling.
I ache for any one that has been alone and lonely, not just on this night, but every night.
May God bless all and may all have a Merry Christmas.
My cousin was at Bastogne about this time 70 years ago. Almost lost his feet.
He LOVED Christmas. He always got the biggest tree you ever saw.
Been there too. Bien Hoa Air Base. I was in Germany from 80 to 84, so I can relate.