A GREEN LIEUTENANT
A memoir of a Vietnam veteran
I came back to the office after dinner, made sure the swivel chair was behind my desk, and decided that it was time to open the box I had received from Uncle Cliff and Aunt Rose. It was at least a yard tall and more than a foot square. It was fairly hefty and clearly marked, �Open on Christmas Eve.�  I had spent time over the past three weeks trying to guess what it could possibly be. I pried the top of the box open and stared in. It was stuffed with newspaper. I pulled that out until my hand rested on something prickly. I reached in and grasped what appeared to be the top and discovered a miniature Christmas tree. A string of tiny lights had been carefully strung around the branches. Green, red, orange, and yellow sour balls were attached in lieu of glass ornaments.

I sat it down on top of my desk to the cheers of everyone else in the office. We fluffed out the branches and located an extension cord. Willy plugged it in and the tree blazed away.

There was a letter from Uncle Cliff inside the box.

           Dear Woody, I hope this finds you well. We thought about what to send you and then I remembered the little tree Rose mailed to me back in �44. Our division (75th)was one of the first ones hit by the German offense on the 16th. My battalion had just come off the front line, all tired and dirty and pretty much shook up. We sat around our tent and everyone was scared, homesick, remembering, wondering what everyone was doing back in the US and then I got this package. I opened it up and there was a little Christmas tree. Rose threw in a small set of lights figuring I�d find some way to get them to work. My buddies and I went to work on it and soon had it blazing away. I hope you can find a way to share this tree with your buddies to let them know that folks back here are thinking and praying for all of you.

          Merry Christmas and may next year find you back with us.
Love,
Cliff and Rose

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