With Military Monday presentations, I can't help but think of our troops serving in far away places during the Christmas Holidays.
Takes me back a few years remembering Christmas in Subic Bay, PI 1965. Newly married in June, deployed in Sept. for a 6 month WESTPAC cruise.
I worked in the Pipe Shop at the time. In the evenings, we'd hang around the shop, playing records and tapes on newly purchased stereo equipment. Someone had a Christmas album and as we played it, some of us began singing along with the record. Soon, more guys showed up and joined in our make-shift choir. If the song wasn't on a record, we sang a cappella.
A few days later, we took a length of 3" pipe and stuck it in the pipe bender and put a 180 bend on one end. We welded it to the deck, painted it white with a red candy-stripe. A sign was welded to the side of our new candy cane with the words, "Season's Greetings from Shop 56A."
That prompted other shops to create their own decorations. Sheetmetal ornaments from the tinners, a homemade Christmas tree from the Shipfitter shop, and the Machine Shop, found a small tree, decorated it with curly metal shavings of brass, copper, steel and aluminum.
Not the same as bein' home, but still, the "Can Do" attitude proved to be a morale booster.