A Little Bit of Home

A Much Traveled Christmas Tree

I first came to Eastern Washington in 1966 wearing shiny lieutenant’s bars and brand-new aviator’s wings. I was assigned as the navigator on a KC-135 tanker crew. We were ramping up our forces in Viet Nam; and within a few months of my arrival, my crew received orders for our first deployment. Air crews heading to Southeast Asia in support of the war were not yet common, so we had a nice send off in front of base operations. We were saying good-by to our wives and children when a woman came across the tarmac dragging a seven-foot Christmas tree. She asked our crew commander if we could take the tree to her husband who had previously deployed to Okinawa. It was two weeks before Christmas, so he promised to deliver it, and put me in charge of making it happen.

Our route to the area of operations was nicknamed “Pony Express” because we changed planes at every weigh point. Our first leg was to March Field in California where we had a twelve-hour layover for crew rest, while our original airplane continued on. So, I dutifully carried the tree along with my bags to my room. That afternoon, crew rest completed, I reloaded the tree on our newly assigned aircraft, and we continued on to Hawaii.

We made the pilgrimage to the USS Arizona and checked out some pineapple fields before getting our required crew rest. Then I reloaded the tree and continuing on to Gaum. I took the obligatory picture of the sign in Base Ops that announced, “Guam is good, but hell is better.” I then took the tree to my quarters and went to bed while the other officers spent their crew rest time on Taraji Beach. I had caught the flu bug in Hawaii and wasn’t quite %100. My only interruption was to get our enlisted crew member out of the base jail, due to a fight in the NCO Club. Next day, still not feeling quite up to par, I dragged the tree across the parking ramp and stowed it for our final leg to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.

I was more than ready to make final delivery of my piney cargo, so my first stop was at aircrew scheduling to locate the tree’s owner. To my dismay, I learned he had rotated forward to Thailand. I further learned we were to join the Tanker Task Force flying missions out of Okinawa. I tried to find another crew to deliver the tree but had no luck. So, I secured the tree in my room and forgot about it for about a week until we were ordered forward. I loaded it for the last time and headed for Utapao Air Base, Thailand. Word must have spread ahead of us because a crowd of guys, including the tree’s owner, met me at the plane and relieved me of my burden.

Bombing was stopped for Christmas, so we were free Christmas Eve, but were assigned to refuel reconnaissance aircraft Christmas Day afternoon. When we went to breakfast on Dec 24th, the tree was standing in the Officer’s Club in all its faded glory. It was a taller version of Charlie Brown’s tree. What needles remained were dried to a rusty brown. It was a pretty sad sight, but the waitresses and kitchen staff didn’t seem to mind. They were all Buddhists and had never seen a real Christmas Tree. They had, however, seen pictures and went to work making our poor bedraggled tree look like the one in the magazine. They made wreaths out of popcorn and cranberries, and tied on bows of material from an unknown source. The ornaments made by cutting shapes from tin cans made it almost elegant. It was transformed into the centerpiece of our Christmas Eve party.

Two Air Force Chaplains showed up Christmas morning and conducted a very nice worship service. We left as soon as it was completed to fly our mission. When we returned, the tree was gone. I wish I had taken a picture.

Frank Watson is a retired Air Force Colonel and long-time resident of Eastern Washington. He has been a free-lance columnist for over 20 years.