Update:
There is a real neat site with the “simple” mission statement, “To help service members and veterans lead more successful and fulfilling lives.”
It is called RallyPoint and it more than lives up to its mission statement.
Founded by two military veterans and backed up by two of the US military’s recent Joint Chiefs of Staff, RallyPoint “connects its members and gives them the best tools possible to succeed both while in the military, and beyond.” At RallyPoint, members can build out their “professional network, connect with other members of the military and veterans in a safe environment, and explore career opportunities both within the military and in the private sector.”
If you have any military connections, or are just interested in what our military think, say and experience, please check RallyPoint out this Christmas.
“Anyway,” RallyPoint picked up this article and one of the readers commented that members of our Special Forces and Special Ops were not mentioned.
These are some of the most skilled, elite, dedicated and brave members of our military. They are called upon to perform the toughest, most sensitive, low-profile and loneliest missions our military has.
Because their missions are so sensitive, the public seldom gets to hear or read about them.
If on a mission during these holidays, these troops will face some of the loneliest moments and our thoughts, best wishes and gratitude are certainly with them this Christmas.
Thank you for pointing this out, RallyPoint.
Original Post:
This will be 15th consecutive Christmas thousands of our troops spend in harm’s way, on the cruel battlefields of the Middle East, instead of at home with their loved ones.
Tragically, those cruel battlefields continue to exact the ultimate sacrifice from our servicemen as six American airmen were killed near Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, in the deadliest attack on our troops in months — just days before Christmas.
U.S. service members pay their respects during a ceremony on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Dec. 23, 2015, to honor six airmen killed in a vehicle bomb attack on their patrol outside Bagram. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Robert Cloys
This will also be seventh or eighth Christmas that I try to convey what I am sure is America’s heartfelt appreciation for their sacrifices and America’s profound and over-and-over-repeated hope that next Christmas, “when they listen to or sing the hauntingly beautiful words from ‘I’ll be home for Christmas,’ it will finally not be ‘only in [their] dreams.'”
As in past years, Jim Garamone of the DOD News, Defense Media Activity, tells us where our deployed troops will be during the holidays.
Garamone says that in addition to the around 9,800 Americans deployed to Afghanistan, this Christmas we have an additional 3,500 Americans deployed to Iraq and Syria to assist in the fight against ISIL.
“All told, there will be roughly 220,000 American service members serving overseas this holiday season,” Garamone says, operating in more than 100 countries, on every continent.
Thousands of them will be spending Christmas aboard Navy ships and ballistic missile submarines.
On the largest U.S. aircraft carrier alone — the USS Harry S. Truman, headed for operations in the Arabian Gulf — there are more than 5,000 personnel. The amphibious ready group centered around the USS Kearsarge, operating in the Arabian Gulf, has another 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard.
Garamone continues:
In the Pacific, there are roughly 50,000 American service members based in Japan. Another 28,500 troops are based on the Korean Peninsula.
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About 500 service members will be celebrating the holiday season in Australia and more celebrating in Singapore.
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Africa has one large base — Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti — and there are around 4,000 service members assigned there. Roughly another 1,000 service members are deployed elsewhere on the continent.
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More than 64,000 U.S. service members are stationed across Europe — from Rota, Spain, to the Baltic Republics. The highest number is in Germany, followed by Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain. There are another 3,000 based in Turkey, which is a NATO ally with most of its territory in Asia.
Finally, there will be roughly 5,500 service members deployed to Central and South America and “U.S. airmen may also be operating to resupply scientists in Antarctica during the holidays.”
Garamone points out that there will be thousands of other U.S. service members away from home during the holidays: Those manning our space, missile and air defenses; those defending our newest frontier, cyberspace, and those performing the oldest and most traditional military duties: protecting the American people.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter best expressed such sentiments in his holiday message to the troops videotaped aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, praising their work to create an environment of peace “where others can have happy and safe holidays, live their lives and dream their dreams…” and for “doing the noblest thing you can possibly do with your life, which is protect our people and make a better world for our children.”
Watch the message below.
As for this veteran now safe in retirement thanks to you, I can only repeat my humble, heartfelt words from Christmases past:
“To those troops for who the only bright lights and glow they may see this time of the year are muzzle flashes or the eerie light through their night-vision devices instead of enjoying the bright Christmas lights and the glow of a cozy fire with their loved ones back home, on this 15th Christmas at war, as we once again run out of adequate words to express our gratitude and our best wishes to our heroes, may we be forgiven once again for borrowing from that classic Christmas Song and for paraphrasing a little bit:
To our heroes from Camp Leatherneck to Bagram Field,
And now from the sands of Iraq to the skies over Syria,
Although it’s been said many times, many ways,
Merry Christmas to you
Finally, what a more touching image to represent the melancholy of a military Christmas away from home than of soldiers praying during a candlelight Christmas prayer service in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, fourteen Christmases ago… (Lead photo: DOD)
