You may remember our interview with a soldier in southern Iraq earlier this month. I emailed him to ask for updates on how the Saddam capture has gone down, what the reaction to the TIME Person of the Year issue was, and how they will be celebrating Christmas over there. Our thoughts are with all our folks over there as we expats have at least some idea what it means to have to spend the holidays away from home occasionally - of course under vastly different circumstances.
In any case, his message follows:
The Saddam capture was less spectacular here than one might imagine. There were initially a few people who didn't believe it was him. In general there is a hope that the number of attacks will be going down in the future, but there are doubts that the capture will affect the numbers much. I'd say that the general feeling is "That's nice, but it doesn't affect our situation." I haven't had that much contact with local nationals lately, but I understand they were happy with the capture.Good to see they're keeping a sense of humor about things. It's just too bad they're over there at all. It didn't need to be this way. We are only at the start of this unending "war on terror" and I think that next Christmas many more soldiers will be away from home for the holidays.We heard about the Time person of the year cover from Stars and Stripes, but I haven't gotten my copy in the mail. I haven't really heard much about the article.
My unit is taking the day off. There is a big Christmas dinner planned in the Dining Facility, a dance of sorts tonight, and church services at the chapel. Mostly we're relaxing and catching up on sleep. There are some Christmas trees up around the base, and there was unbearable Christmas music blasting through the PX in the weeks leading up to the holiday. There is a special mission to run Christmas dinner to some of the guys on duty at an outpost 2 hours north of us.
We're trying to keep Christmas pretty low key. It's difficult to be 6500 miles from home and family during the holidays. The phones are definately busy today. A number of people are saying "bah humbug" to it all. One guy put a sign outside his tent warning that "carolers will be fired upon."
Christmas away from your family must really suck. Well I've done it (though not in the service), so I know it does. This is all the more reason I applaud those who VOLUNTEERED to defend us. They are all heroes.
Posted by: Jim | December 29, 2003 at 02:18 PM
Jim, I agree. My deepest respects and regards for those who now serve.
Posted by: Chrish | January 07, 2004 at 05:05 PM