Guardsmen have tough time overseas during holidays
GERMERSHIEM, GERMANY – A small, illuminated tree sits on a stand. Lights twinkle in the window and three holiday-wrapped packages await their opening. It’s Christmas…almost.
Approximately 4,000 men and women of the 28th Infantry Division of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard are patrolling 18 U.S. military installations today in Europe, the Middle East and Bosnia/Herzegovina.
Their six-month deployment began in July, which meant they would be away from home during the holidays.
“It’s going to be hard,” said guardsman Spec. Aaron Trincia as he looked over the decorations that adorned the windows and corner of his Germershiem quarters and presents that had arrived from home that were to be shared with his roommates.
This will be the first year he has been away from the Uniontown home that he shares with his wife of two years, Tonya.
Trincia and other members of his Mount Pleasant guard unit are taking part in Task Force Keystone, the European Security Mission.
“We’re going to try to make the best of it,” he said. “I’ll call home and talk to my wife and my family…but it won’t be the same.”
Mill Run resident, Spec. Earl Pritts, a member of the same unit, will miss watching his 11-month-old daughter and 7-year-old son open their presents and his wife’s home cooking.
“I know they’ll try to make it nice for us here,” he said. “They made a really fantastic meal for Thanksgiving and I’m sure it will be the same on Christmas.”
Not everyone on the base will be celebrating the holiday, according to the two men, but they, along with their roommate, Spec. Brian Wagner of Somerset, have decided to exchange gifts.
The trio agrees, Christmas will be the most difficult day of their deployment.
“I’ve missed birthdays and anniversaries while I’ve been over here, but Christmas is going to be the worst,” said Pritts.
Several hundred miles away at a NATO military base in Bosnia/Herzegovina, Sgt. Shane Pulig, a member of Connellsville’s Company D, 1st Battalion, 103rd Armor, expressed similiar sentiments as his fellow guardsmen.
“It won’t be easy,” he said.
Both bases have decorated Christmas trees in entranceways and mess halls. The Bosnian Eagle Base has a wooden Santa Claus and sleigh sitting alongside the road, but they won’t replace family gatherings, children’s smiles or the aroma of turkey in the oven for the overseas soldiers away from their loved ones.
The three said they would be utilizing telephone cards and electronic mail to talk to family members on Christmas Day in order to share greetings.
Raymond Trincia will be awaiting his son’s call.
“We all miss him very much,” said the family patriarch from his Masontown home. “He is always such a big help at Christmas with all the preparations.”
Although some gifts have been already forwarded to the German base, there will be a present waiting for his son when he returns.
“We’re hoping he gets to come home in January,” said Raymond Trincia. “We’ll celebrate his return and Christmas when he comes home.”
Aaron Trincia, meanwhile, said, with the passing of Christmas Day, his time away from home will be shortened.
“After Christmas, it will be all downhill from there,” he said.