Holiday decorations keep troops' morale high

Photo By Spc. Deborah Ledesma | KUWAIT---Sgt. 1st Class Richard Degaetano (left) and Staff Sgt. Anthony Doty (right), trim the top of a real Christmas tree placed on the stage at Camp Buehring on Dec. 13, to boost the troops morale while deployed during the holiday season.  

CAMP ARIFJAN, KUWAIT

12.19.2006

Story by Spc. Deborah Ledesma 

40th Public Affairs Detachment

By Spc. Debrah A. Robertson
40th Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait— Christmas lights and tinsel, stockings and trees, caroling music and paper snowflakes. It's the holiday season in Kuwait. Although there are no fresh evergreens or drifting snow and fireplaces with stockings all in row, deployed troops decorate with lights and cards and plastic trees.

"This is my first time away from home," said Sgt. Jessica Stafford, the orderly and training noncommissioned officer in charge with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 24th Transportation Battalion. "I decorate so I can feel closer to home."

Whether the decorations were sent by friends and family back home or purchased at the Post Exchange, some servicemembers take the time to uphold family traditions with their deployed family.

"I decorate to boost morale," said Sgt. 1st Class Walter Powell, a noncommissioned officer in charge of one of Camp Buehring's dining facilities.

Decorating the camp dining facilities and other common areas on camp gives troops a better atmosphere while away from home, said Powell, who is in the Special Troops Battalion, 377th Theater Support Command.

"I definitely think that it boosts [troops] morale," said Stafford. "Every little bit helps people adjust to being so far away from their loved ones."

"It gives them a boost," said Stafford.

Making servicemembers feel more at home with their deployed families is what it's about for many of those putting up decorations in common areas, said Stafford and Powell.

Many of the workers in the camp dining facilities make the decoration for the facilities themselves, said Powell.

"My mom sent me all [these decorations] because she wants me to feel as comfortable as possible," said Stafford.

So whether the decorations were purchased themselves, sent from loved ones thousands of miles away or simply hand-crafted, holiday decorations bring the holidays to Kuwait.

• Date Taken: 12.19.2006
• Date Posted: 12.19.2006 13:42
• Story ID: 8627
• Location: CAMP ARIFJAN, KW