A Most Unforgettable Christmas

It's customary for stateside military personnel to take furlough during Christmas week to visit their families back home and as a young U.S. Marine, when not deployed, I too would follow that convention, but not always.

This part was the same

Military furlough is not unlike the traditional vacation time of any civilian job in that one gains more leave days the longer they’re in and it was typical for us to gather and save as much furlough in order to ensure we had time off during the holidays and I was no different.

This Part was different, though.

But it was a long time ago, when one year, I and some friends stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, decided to forgo furlough that year during Christmastime and remain there on the base and take our leave, later, when everyone else returned, usually after New Year’s Day.

Left Behind

There were about four of us, and we watched what seemed to be the entire population of Marines at Camp Lejeune depart for home. Lejeune was a ghost town as we were the only four out of the entire battalion to remain there and we practically had the whole base to ourselves. I’ve often wondered what would happen if the country was attacked during Christmas because there would be no military to defend the country.

During that quiet week, we still had to report in uniform every morning to the officer on duty but afterwards we were on our own. No training, no formations, no duties, no physical training, no inspections, and no watches other than the occasional guard duty but it was a small price to pay, and I must admit it was one of the most unforgettable, and fun, Christmases I ever had.

Say "hello" to our friend, Jim

We spent the week with a case of Jim Beam, going into Jacksonville at night to paint the town red, taking a couple of days to go fishing at nearby Catfish Lake and since we ate most of our meals at the chow hall, we didn’t spend any money on eating out. We also had no cars and our transportation to and from town was by bus, so we had no worries about driving conditions.

It was a great bonding experience for the four of us who still keep in touch to this day.

When the holiday was over, and everyone else reported back for duty, the four of us put in our leave requests as planned and off we went to celebrate a new year, not at home, but in Montana, which was another unforgettable experience, but that’s another story.