Troops celebrated the holidays with tradition
Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 7:21am
Luminarias at Camp Bucca, Iraq.
Members of the New Mexico National Guard 515th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, who were station in Belen before deploying to Iraq, spent their holidays giving their temporary home at Camp Bucca, Iraq, a traditional feel.
The soldiers ate beans, posole and chile for both holidays. They also decorated the camp with luminarias for Christmas and boxed on New Year’s Day.
The troops received “truckloads” of care packages, said Lt. Colonel Kenneth Nava, who leads the battalion in Iraq.
“I would really like to thank everyone for all the great care packages we have received. I will tell you that we all feel very missed and loved when we receive truckloads of packages,” he said.
They set up a “troop store” to make sure each soldier got whatever he or she needed.
The troops have been at the new camp for a little over a month.
“Our new temporary home is okay. We have everything we need,” Nava said. “Although the place is much smaller than our last location, we have more amenities. We have a Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut, and Green Beans Coffee.”
The southern Iraq camp was at one time used for internment, holding up to 30,000 prisoners. No one’s imprisoned in the camp’s Theater Internment Facility (TIF) anymore.
“All of the occupants have either been released or relocated. The only sounds coming from the area of the TIF are the sounds of deconstruction as it is disassembled,” said Sergeant Dalene Marsh.
Nava said their new desert camp has fewer trees than the last one, where they were regularly hit with bird turds that they turned into a game of sorts, tracking who got hit how many times.
They’ve got four trees now and those trees are designated a “National Forest,” Nava quipped.
“Over the next several months, we will be preparing for our next major movement — our return to New Mexico,” said Captain Michael Calhoon.
