--- title: "Tell us your stories about spending Christmas in combat zones" description: "Christmas means many things to many different Americans, but Christmas in combat is an experience unique to U.S. service members." date: "2022-12-19" modified: "2022-12-19" authors: - name: "Jared Keller" job_title: "Former Managing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/christmas-in-combat-stories/" categories: - "Culture" --- # Tell us your stories about spending Christmas in combat zones ![Christmas in Combat]() *Pfc. Kyle Garcia from Ridgefield, Wash., right, along with Spc. Steven Galvin from Holstein, Iowa, of 2nd Platoon Bravo Company 2-327 Infantry, returns fires after a sudden attack by Taliban on Combat Out Post Badel in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border on Friday, Dec. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)* 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. ## Author Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Facebook]() [LinkedIn]() [Instagram]()