Posted December 24, 2018 8:00 am by Comments

By Chris Eger

Servicemembers throughout the centuries unable to return home for the holiday have found a way to keep the tradition alive while deployed.
Celebrated in the U.S. as far back as 1539 when Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto wintered in Florida, it was made a federal holiday by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1870. The event has a special place in the hearts of those in uniform missing their family and has been documented extensively over the years.
A Christmas dinner. A scene on the outer picket line by Edwin Forbes, (Photo: Library of Congress)
USS Brooklyn’s crew preparing Christmas dinner, 1890 (Photo: Library of Congress)
Christmas at Buna, Papua- New Guinea, 1942 with Australian and US Army troops (Photo: Australian War Memorial’s collection)
1944- U.S. infantrymen open Christmas mail from home in the Hurtgen Forest, near Zweifall, Germany (Photo: U.S. Center for Military History)
Note the M1903A3s on the wall
Christmas C-rations “somewhere in Europe” 1944
Christmas card made by 82nd Airborne Paratrooper 1944 (Photo: 82nd ABN Museum)
Christmas card made by 82nd Airborne Paratrooper 1944 (Photo: 82nd ABN Museum)
Christmas card made by 82nd Airborne Paratrooper 1944 (Photo: 82nd ABN Museum)
Christmas in Vietnam
Vietnam 25 Dec 1970: Marine Light Helicopter Squadron 167 UH-1 in flight over Marble Mountain on Christmas

Source: Guns.com

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