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Author Joe C Comb 2nd
Front Cover Art Elizabeth V. Combs
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010
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Dedicated
to all the men and women
on duty
serving their nation
on
December 25, 2010
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James F. Dunnigan once wrote in a book dedication: “… To all the professional military men I have known, for sharing their secrets with me and demonstrating how they can be pacifists, warriors and patriots without contradiction.” That statement is the key to understanding the sacrifice of those who serve in their nations military and the people who love and support them from home.
From Valley Forge to Iraq and Afghanistan, for more than two hundred years men and women have made the sacrifice for and endured separation from those they love. The separation is always hard, but never felt so strongly as during the holiday season. It is also the holiday season which gives us some of our most heartfelt memories.
December 25, 1914 those memories are of British, French and German troops meeting in no-man’s land to share Christmas together. They shared packages from home, sang Christmas carols, and buried their comrades together. December 11, 1941 the USS Gudgeon sailed for Japanese waters, the first submarine sent on war patrol after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. December 25, 1941 the USS Gudgeon was one week from its assigned patrol area. No doubt the crew was wondering if they would ever spend a Christmas with their families again. A few years later on Christmas Eve, while the USS Raton went to battle stations to attack a Japanese convoy, in a German forest a woman invited a handful of German and American soldiers to share the evening with her and her children. She insisted they leave their weapons outside and shared what little she had with these men.
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For a submarine on patrol each day is just another day, exactly like the last. The day’s drills start at six in the morning and run until six at night. Fire, flooding, battle stations, weapons emergency, reactor emergency; we practice everything that can go wrong on a submarine so if it does go wrong, we are ready. After drills end we have training, it’s a full eighteen hour day. If you got off watch at six in the morning you go back on watch at six in the evening without sleep for the day. Thankful at midnight when your watch is over and you can finally lie down and sleep.
It was about twenty minutes after midnight when I finally crawled into my bunk, after my sleepless day. That was when the general alarm sounded. This was real; there are no drills on the mid-watch. It must be a fire or flooding and we were 400 hundred feet down more than 3000 miles from home. I was up pulling on my coveralls when the announcement came, “repel boarders”. “Repel boarders?” I thought. The general alarm sounded again and then again the announcement “repel boarders”. Next I heard a description of the trespasser to our underwater world. “The boarder is a short fat man in a red suit with white fur trim; he has a white beard and moustache”. Angry, I crawled back into bunk. At twenty minutes into Christmas morning, with no sleep, I was not going to go look for Santa Claus. What did he do, use a scuba tank and come in through the escape hatch? I closed the curtain on my bunk and started to fall asleep when all the lights in berthing came on.
“Everyone up, the XO says everyone to repel boarders stations.” A voice said.
“I am not getting up to go looking for Santa Claus.” I shouted back.
A hand grabbed my curtain and ripped it back, “the XO says you are”.
So the crew is now searching the whole ship for Santa Claus. As the off going sonar supervisor I am teamed up with the off going torpedoman. I with my three by five card with “.45 and ammo” written on it, and the off going torpedoman with his three by five card, with “shotgun and ammo” written on it. Thirty minutes after the drill is started it’s stopped and I go back to my bunk. Angry, I whip back my curtain and there on my pillow is a Christmas stocking. Even though most of our crew is single, two months ago the ship’s wives club made Christmas stockings for every man onboard. Somehow, our command master chief (the cob) and our executive officer (the XO) managed to hide 120 Christmas stockings onboard a submarine at sea for two months, without anyone finding them. Then, they had a repel boarders drill to get everyone out of birthing, so they could deliver the stockings. While I stood there holding my Christmas stocking I began to hear Christmas carols. Soon, throughout the ship, from the torpedo room to shaft alley, men were singing Christmas carols. Somewhere, on the other side of the world, at this very moment people were thinking of us and missing us. We were not forgotten; today is not just another day on patrol. Today is Christmas.
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IN A FUTURE EDITION OF
CHRISTMAS PATROL
While on duty, did someone give some small act of kindness to you or a loved one on Christmas? Did you open your heart and home? While on watch did a duty officer surprise you with an unauthorized candy cane during his rounds? Is a part of your family tradition to invite service members from a nearby base to share your holiday celebration? Any nation or branch of the military, no story is too great or small. Send your story (we can only accept stories in English right now) to christmaspatrol@aol.com and share your holiday memories in the next edition of Christmas Patrol.
Please Include:
•The holiday (Christmas, Hanukah, New Year’s Day) any holiday, during December or January.
•Branch of service (coast guard, army or whatever).
•The nation of service (United States, Russia, Canada or any nation).
•The names of those involved.
•The location and year where your story takes place.
•Photographs black & white or color (of the event or a good photo of the people involved) if you wish.
•Most important, your story in 2000 words or less.
•You do not need to be a writer just tell us your story, we can edit it for you if needed.
•Last, in your e-mail you need to include a statement that you own the copyright on your photographs and story (this just means you took the photographs or that the story is your own in your own words) and that you give Christmas Patrol the non-exclusive right to publish your photographs and story (you still own all rights to your photographs and story this statement only allows us to include your story in a future edition of Christmas Patrol). Unfortunately we are not able to compensate contributors and cannot guarantee when or if your story will appear in a future edition of Christmas patrol.
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Joe & Elizabeth Combs
THE AUTHOR
Joe Combs served in the United States Navy from Jan 25, 1980 to Nov 8, 1988 serving aboard the USS City of Corpus Christ SSN 705 and the USS John Marshall SSN 611. Joe also spent considerable time at sea on the USS Dallas, USS Philadelphia and the USS Boston. He now lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and daughter.
Elizabeth Combs attends kindergarten and dance classes. She lives with her parents in Columbus, Ohio.
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