Christmas can be many things for many different people. For some, it’s a celebration, a chance to reflect on the past year and share holiday cheer and joy with family and friends and a moment to forge new memories to pass on for years to come in a global tradition-industrial complex that rivals anything Gen. Eisenhower ever warned about.
For many U.S. service members deployed to combat zones overseas, however, it is usually a bit less angelic than friends and family back home probably imagine: more often than not, Christmas is a great opportunity to raid the DFAC for semi-frozen pecan pie, shoot the shit with brothers-in-arms, and, if you’re lucky, not have to sprint to the IDF shelter when you manage to actually call home.
This holiday season at Task & Purpose, we want to hear from you, our readers, about what it’s really like to spend Christmas in a combat zone. From the boring and mundane to the extremely high-speed, we want to share your stories and paint a picture of what holiday cheer really means when all you have is your rifle and your friends together downrange.
Send your stories to jared@taskandpurpose.com with ‘Christmas in combat’ in the subject line, share them in the comments section below, or share them with us on Facebook and Twitter . We’ll republish the best ones closer to Christmas.