For GIs in Afghanistan Christmas spirit is hard to find.

Army Times reports that for some troops deployed to Afghanistan, ‘it’s not beginning to look a lot like Christmas.’

Several troops interviewed by the Associated Press expressed this, however we also found those who take a wartime Christmas with a sense of humor. This of course is not the first time American troops have been in combat on such a holy day, and it sure as heck won’t be the last Christmas.

Robert L. Hanafin
VT Staff Writer

     No time for Christmas for GIs in Afghan east

For Staff Sgt. Byron Krepcho, it doesn’t feel like Christmas. Instead of celebrating Christmas with his family back in Dallas, Texas, Krepcho’s unit spent Christmas Eve fired mortars at enemy positions from Command Post Michigan in the Pech River Valley in the tense Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan.

"Ah, Christmas, I don’t think about it as a holiday because I just treat it as another day I’ve been here. I just go on as any day that I spent here … thinking about going home," said SSG Krepcho said with a laugh.

Eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks led to the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban regime, U.S.-led coalition forces are fighting in the wild east of Afghanistan bordering Pakistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida-linked fighters and supporters of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are proving a stubborn foe.

Ambushes, rocket attacks and roadside bombings are the stock-in-trade for the elusive militants who hide in these forbidding mountains and valleys to harass U.S. forces attempting to extend the influence of the shaky Afghan government.

"This is my third Christmas away from family, the first two were in Iraq and then one here," Sgt. David Nix, from Charlotte, North Carlina, said, adding that he misses waking up on Christmas morning with his wife and kids.

Source credit: Dario Lopez – The Associated Press http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_soldiers_afghanistan_christmas_122409/

However, we’ve found that these open source photos below reflect just how troops in the war zone take Christmas with a grain of salt and sense of humor. What better way to spend Christmas at war.

Troop’s version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas taken at an airbase in Afghanistan – credit unknown, the notation said the photo was taken at an U.S. Air Base in Afghanistan, but let our readers decide if the uniforms and truck bringing up the rear are U.S. military issue. This could be an allied NATO unit.

Of course no one can do Christmas better than British troops of could be Canadian or Australian? Is any reader familiar with the shoulder patch? It is definitely a NATO unit for the Union Jack is clear at the rear of the dining hall and no U.S. flags are present.

Robert L. Hanafin

Readers are more than welcome to use the articles I’ve posted on Veterans Today, I’ve had to take a break from VT as Veterans Issues and Peace Activism Editor and staff writer due to personal medical reasons in our military family that take away too much time needed to properly express future stories or respond to readers in a timely manner.

My association with VT since its founding in 2004 has been a very rewarding experience for me.

Retired from both the Air Force and Civil Service. Went in the regular Army at 17 during Vietnam (1968), stayed in the Army Reserve to complete my eight year commitment in 1976. Served in Air Defense Artillery, and a Mechanized Infantry Division (4MID) at Fort Carson, Co. Used the GI Bill to go to college, worked full time at the VA, and non-scholarship Air Force 2-Year ROTC program for prior service military. Commissioned in the Air Force in 1977. Served as a Military Intelligence Officer from 1977 to 1994. Upon retirement I entered retail drugstore management training with Safeway Drugs Stores in California. Retail Sales Management was not my cup of tea, so I applied my former U.S. Civil Service status with the VA to get my foot in the door at the Justice Department, and later Department of the Navy retiring with disability from the Civil Service in 2000.

I’ve been with Veterans Today since the site originated. I’m now on the Editorial Board. I was also on the Editorial Board of Our Troops News Ladder another progressive leaning Veterans and Military Family news clearing house.

I remain married for over 45 years. I am both a Vietnam Era and Gulf War Veteran. I served on Okinawa and Fort Carson, Colorado during Vietnam and in the Office of the Air Force Inspector General at Norton AFB, CA during Desert Storm. I retired from the Air Force in 1994 having worked on the Air Staff and Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon.