Celebrating Holidays in the Afghanistan War Zone (VIDEO)

An inside look at the winter holiday for military forces stationed in Afghanistan. This special holiday video mini-documentary was first produced in 2008.

Photos and Video by Tim King, Dec 2006

(KABUL, Afghanistan) - People in a war zone are limited in the ways they can celebrate holidays, but last year in Afghanistan they managed to keep the spirit alive in a number of ways.

I spent the last holiday season covering the war in Afghanistan where I was an embedded reporter with the Oregon National Guard's 41st Brigade Combat Team.

Some of the soldiers had the rare privilege of being a contender in a snowball fight, or other holiday antics that are reminiscent of home. The snowball fight was something that made everyone forget there was a war going on, for a few minutes at least.

Another way soldiers enjoy the holidays is the season's main ingredient: decorating. Oklahoma National Guard soldiers at Camp Phoenix in Kabul, Afghanistan tried their best to make the base look a little like "home".

Snow makes the holidays seem closer to home for some, but sadly for the Afghans the time of year means just more bitter cold and there is little they can do to be adequately prepared for it. American soldiers have cold weather gear and they watch out for each other, that's a gift they share every day.

Afghan Army gunner on Christmas Day 2006

In spite of the cold, everywhere I went in Afghanistan in those days preceding Christmas in 2006, I saw soldiers doing their best to beat back homesickness by bonding together and sharing a holiday spirit.

Some people serving on the war front, like Leslie Elbe, a Linguist with the Department of Defense in San Antonio, Texas, say they use it as a time to let others go home.

Perhaps the soldiers who put on the best Christmas party were the military forces running the Kabul Military Training Center. These soldiers spent their time in Afghanistan training the Afghan Army so they can carry on the fight some day without the assistance of western forces.

Soldiers from the Oregon Guard joined forces with the Oklahoma Guard, Wisconsin National Guard and regular active components of the military to perform this training mission. They are assisted by British and Canadian soldiers and the French Army also.

Colonel Dominic Cariello with the Wisconsin National Guard says his role as a commanding officer in Afghanistan has been more than rewarding. In fact he says he wants to return some day with his family to a peaceful Afghanistan.

He talked about the role U.S. soldiers are playing in the war and the success they are having with their Afghan Army counterparts. He believes the successes in Afghanistan have largely gone unnoticed.

Soldiers in Afghanistan over the last holiday season say being away from home is hard, but they manage despite the hardships. For Oregon Guardsmen and other soldiers and Marines and sailors and airmen, performing their military roles at Christmas time is just as important as any other day of the year.

Our convoy on Christmas day almost didn't reach our destination. In addition to the cold, there were reports of recent enemy activity in the areas we were traveling through on a day of the year when most people are at home with their families. The convoy had trucks spin out, they became stuck in the driving storm and the going was slow.

Of course in a combat zone covered in hidden land mines, the snow can also be a total hazard. Much of the footage in this report was recorded on Christmas day as a U.S. and Afghan Army convoy I was part of was finding it increasingly difficult to navigate the road from feet of snow. In fact, at one point we completely lost the tracks on the road.

Luckily some Afghan drivers, approaching from the far distance, eventually showed us where the road was and we were able to continue to our destination at a forward operating base in the mountains called Khyar Khot Castle.

Soldiers throughout Afghanistan took time out to celebrate the holidays and share camaraderie that only a special occasion can bring about so well. This year most of these soldiers are home as their tour of duty in Afghanistan ended a few months after the holidays. But other soldiers are in the same locations doing the same thing. Other soldiers are presently stationed in Iraq, where many of these soldiers will go next year and the year after that.

It really isn't hard to imagine the holidays here in many ways. Afghanistan certainly is a winter wonderland and perhaps some day the guns here will be silenced and people in this cold land will be once again allowed to live in warmth and peace.

WATCH THE VIDEO "AFGHANISTAN CHRISTMAS" BELOW:

Produced by Tim King

Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu

In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005. Serving readers with news from all over the globe, Tim's life is literally encircled by the endless news flow published by Salem-News.com, where more than 100 writers contribute stories from 23+ countries and regions.

Tim specializes in writing about political and military developments worldwide; and maintains that the label 'terrorist' is ill placed in many cases; specifically with the LTTE Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, where it was used as an excuse to slaughter people by the tens of thousands; and in Gaza, where a trapped population lives at the mercy of Israel's destructive military war crime grinder. At the center of all of this, Tim pays extremely close attention to the safety and welfare of journalists worldwide. You can write to Tim at this address: tim@salem-news.com. Visit Tim's Facebook page (facebook.com/TimKing.Reporter)