2008 Woodie Awards
Not Forgotten: Jennifer Damko
Jennifer Damko
Issue date: 12/27/05 Section: Features
|
This timeline places a whole new stress on the soldiers and their families. The old saying "so close yet still so far" is ringing true. We will be transitioning through Kuwait on Christmas Day. This means that we will have left the friendships and relationships we established in Mosul and will be living out of our rucksacks and in tents while waiting for the Air Force to bring us home. We won't be able to contact our families via internet or phone as often as we have become accustomed to. But the soldiers will not complain; we all signed up for this. The only reminders of Christmas will be the music playing in the dining facility and the extended meal hours. We will actually get to sleep in. We will play cards until it gets warm enough to play basketball, soccer or volleyball.
Soldiers will be missed at family dinners and children will open presents without their dad. Wives will wake up and have to explain one more time to their five year old why dad still isn't home. Parents won't celebrate Christmas until their grown child has returned. And when we do return home, our unopened presents will be given to us. That's the saddest part; Christmas isn't about presents, it's about spending time with family. Nothing brings that more to light than opening gifts weeks after Christmas has passed. It's kind of like opening gifts that really aren't for you.
I know this feeling; this is my second time spending Christmas in Kuwait. My first Christmas here in 1998, someone left a stocking at the foot of each of our beds. It was a nice gesture and a happy surprise. Someone thought about us. But this time will be different. The American public has forgotten about the thousands of soldiers who are spending Christmas away from home.
What makes the whole deployment worth our trials are the smiles on the faces of the local nationals who greet us each morning when they come in for work. These local nationals literally risk their lives to work as barbers, carpenters, welders and laborers for the U.S. military. Not many Americans would risk their lives to work these kinds of jobs, but the local nationals will do whatever it takes to provide for their families. We pay them better and treat them better than the average Iraqi employer, and we offer them a safer place to work. Most don't understand any English, but they love to mimic the soldiers. We put a "Happy Halloween" sign up in our office and our welder greeted us with "Merry Christmas" for the next two weeks. These are great men who just want to provide for their families.
Most are Muslim, some are Christian, but all celebrate Christmas. While our families are eating turkey, they will be eating lamb. Children will wake up anxious to see what presents await them. Young adults will gather around the chess set and backgammon board to challenge one another. There will be music and laughter and chaos.
The soldiers will make due. Christmas is on a Sunday this year, for most soldiers this is their "down" day anyway. If it fell on any other day, we would get that day off, too. It's kind of lonely, knowing that your family is enjoying themselves without you. Getting through a deployment is all about routine. Throwing in a day off seems like a reward, but really it's just a reminder of what you've left behind.
- Major Jennifer Damko graduated from Gonzaga in 1995 with a degree in Biology. She has served in the U.S. Army for 10 years.