"Merry Christmas and Please Don't Die"

[Hissyspit]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraqxmas25dec25,1,3304708.story?track=crosspromo&coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true

U.S. troops in Iraq doing their best to get in the holiday spirit
Santa hats, carols and toys for local children provide a hint of home.
By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer
December 25, 2006

CAMP FALLOUJA, IRAQ — In an auditorium where conscripts for Saddam Hussein's army were once given indoctrination lectures, hundreds of U.S. Marines, sailors and soldiers gathered on Christmas Eve to hear a chaplain urge them to "take the joy of Christmas" with them in their daily duties here.

- snip -

The service was a break in the seven-day-a-week work schedule that is the norm at Camp Fallouja, one of the major U.S. bases in volatile Al Anbar province. For most of the military personnel, Christmas will be a workday. Nonetheless, the corps made efforts at the big base to evoke the holiday.

- snip -

The spirit was more austere for Marines assigned to a series of small outposts scattered around the region. For them, there was no chance to come to the big base for Christmas Eve services or the festive chow hall.

At the now-empty Abu Ghraib prison, Army 1st Sgt. Scott Moyer said he planned on Christmas Day to communicate with his wife and 3-month-old daughter in Sierra Vista, Ariz., through a new webcam. He's one of seven soldiers living at the prison to help mentor the Iraqi army unit stationed there to keep away looters. "They've promised us hot chow for Christmas Day," Moyer said. "I don't know what it is, but I'm going to eat it."

- snip -

Along with gifts from home, many of the Marines had received cards and small gifts from strangers, particularly schoolchildren. Sgt. Josh Foster, 27, of Kansas City, Mo., spending his third Christmas on deployment, said he received a card from a schoolgirl with two wishes: "Merry Christmas and please don't die."

Lance Cpl. Craig Wilson, 21, of Streetsboro, Ohio, said he was unsure how he would remember this Christmas. "It depends on how tonight's mission goes," said Wilson, who is assigned to Karmah, considered the most dangerous of the neighborhoods surrounding Fallouja.

MORE

[Bucky]

1. "...unsure how he would remember this Christmas. 'It depends on how tonight's mission goes,' "

God bless these kids. Bush drops 'em in the meat grinder to show how determined he is, and now it's up in the air if some of them will even live long enough to remember this Christmas.

[MethuenProgressive]

2. "Merry Christmas and please don't die."

From her lips to God's ears.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. His third Christmas on deployment?

That is terrible!

[roody]

4. Yeah I am sure they are feeling 'the

joy of Xmas." What a bunch of crap.