Update:
Found this year’s U.S. Air Force Band’s flash mob performance. It is a lively musical arrangement sequence of “Jingle Bells” and “Auld Lang Syne” performed at DC’s Union Station on Dec. 3.
Enjoy, too, following last year’s classic performance at the Air and Space Museum at the bottom.
Original Post:
We have seen how NORAD is preparing to track Santa from the moment his sleigh leaves the North Pole on Christmas Eve.
Military units and personnel all around the world are also getting into the spirit of the season by bringing a little bit of that Christmas spirit aboard their ships, to their remote camps or wherever they may be.
More important, even when our troops themselves may spend Christmas away from home and away from their loved ones, they will be doing all they can to make someone else’s Christmas a little more Merry.
Xavier Hall, 4, receives a new toy from Santa Claus, played by U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Mauricio Sandoval, during a Toys for Tots event in Nikolai, Alaska, Dec. 11, 2015. The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve runs the program to use toys to deliver a message of hope to less fortunate children. This year three teams of Marines traveled in sub-zero temperatures via snow machine to remote villages near Kotzebue, Galena and McGrath to deliver toys to children. U.S. Air Force photo by Alejandro Pena
U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Godson Bagnabana puts up an inflatable snowman on the flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan in Yokosuka, Japan, Dec. 17, 2015. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan Burke
Army Sgt. Makenzie Black helps pack donated toys into bags to be distributed to children in need this holiday season as part of the 18th annual Randy Oler Memorial Operation Toy Drop on Fort Bragg, N.C. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Timothy Koster
A U.S. Army Special Operations parachute team member descends toward Luzon drop zone during the 18th Annual Randy Oler Memorial Operation Toy Drop on Camp Mackall, N.C., Dec. 7, 2015. Operation Toy Drop is the world’s largest combined airborne operation during which service members help provide children in need with toys for the holidays. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Douglas Ellis
Santa Claus prepares to hand out a present at a party sponsored by the Reconnaissance Crews Booster Club at the Pointe at Rising View, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., Dec. 12, 2015. The event combined a holiday party with a shopping trip in which underprivileged children received money to spend on winter clothing and shoes. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Rachel Hammes)
A child attending a holiday party sponsored by the Reconnaissance Crews Booster Club squints as her face is painted at the Pointe at Rising View, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., Dec. 12, 2015. The event combined a holiday party with a shopping trip in which underprivileged children received money to spend on winter clothing and shoes. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Rachel Hammes)
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Alena Zidlicky, a vocalist and French Horn player with the United States Air Force Heartland of America Band, sings a solo at the 2015 “Sounds of the Season” holiday concert series held at Bellevue East High School on Dec. 12 in Bellevue, Neb. The holiday concert series goes to several metro area schools over the two-week performance. (U.S. Air Force photo by Josh Plueger)
Australian Army Cpl. Teome Matamua and Sgt. Phillip McIllvaney, 176th Air Dispatch Squadron loadmasters, deliver the first low-cost, low-altitude bundle of Operation Christmas Drop 2015 to the island of Mogmog, Dec. 8, 2015. Australian and Japanese C-130 Hercules aircrews for the first time joined U.S. Airmen during the 64th year of Operation Christmas Drop which provided critical supplies to 56 islands throughout the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Republic of Palau. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Katrina Brisbin)
Navy Band Great Lakes’ horn section belts out a seasonal song during a holiday concert at Lakes Community High School. U.S. Navy photo by Scott A. Thornbloom
No Christmas tribute to the military would be complete without a video of the U.S. Air Force Band surprising the world with another musical flash mob.
This year’s flash mob is now available and follows, a previous one held at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
Enjoy!
And a Merry Christmas to all TMV readers.
Lead photo: Santa Claus gives a pediatric patient a gift at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD). Santa Claus and NMCSD staff members brought patients toys and cookies to lift their holiday spirits. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Mayra A. Conde)
All photos and captions: DOD
