A Christmas Never Forgotten

The Christmas I most remember was the Christmas of 1961. I was at Navy boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois. There was lots of snow and plenty of cold weather with the wind coming off frozen Lake Michigan.

Christmas Eve was like any other day in boot camp. We finished our training just before supper time and went to eat. We marched back to the barracks and were told we would have Christmas Day off from training, but we could not leave the barracks except to march to chow.

As the evening set in, it dawned on the 80 of us that it was the first Christmas away from home for most. There were no presents and very few Christmas cards. We were in a WWII style barracks which was two story and built in an H configuration with the heads (bathrooms) and laundry rooms located in the middle part of the H.

Anyway after taps at 10:00 p.m. we were all lying in our racks (bunks) and most of us were restless. So it was decided that we would get a Bible and read the Christmas Story aloud. We couldn’t turn on the lights, but there were plenty of Zippo cigarette lighters around.

So we gathered up ten or twelve lighters and I read the Christmas Story from the Gospel of Luke to the rest of guys in the barracks. After it was over, the Zippos were put away, and we all climbed back in our racks.

After a few minutes of silence, someone in a far corner of the barracks started singing Silent Night. In what seemed like a split second, everybody joined in. Then, we all went to sleep satisfied that we had properly celebrated Christmas. A 05:30 the next morning, we all gathered outside in the snow and marched about a mile to breakfast and then back to the barracks. We had free time until lunch and then until dinner and then until taps that evening.

When I look back on it many, many years later, I marvel at how a group of guys from all over the United States were able to bond together on Christmas Eve to celebrate the birth of Christ. It was a very meaningful Christmas which I have never forgotten.