Merry Christmas Memories... Operation Desert Shield Walt Disney Christmas 1990

Me, Mark Jones, & Clint Stringer picked guitar as often as we could outside the MWR tent. We got asked to play when Walt Disney came to tent city to shoot their Christmas show. Our favorite gig was our command performance for the 1st. SOW Christmas Party!

Hard to imagine, but it's been 24 years since Operation Desert Shield / Desert Storm.  This Christmas, I wish to offer to everyone who served over there, and was out in the desert at the time what they missed if they were not near a TV set... Walt Disneys 1990 Desert Shield Christmas Parade.

I discovered this VHS Tape in my Parents things. They taped it because I was deployed, & one of the guitar pickers playing in the show. It thrilled them to tape the show & preserve it for posterity.

This is edited excerpts of the 8th Annual Walt Disney World Christmas Parade live telecast, which particularly feature the Men & Women service members deployed into the Gulf. Original air date Dec. 25th. 1990 

The video is dedicated to all who deployed, and especially those who might not have had the chance to watch it when it originally aired. Thank you Walt Disney for your commitment to our Military Families everywhere.
Putting things in perspective, while rapid success of Operation Desert Storm is what most focus on nowadays, Operation Desert Shield had a far larger impact on the American psyche for a greater length of time. 

Ater the first deployments in August of '90, until the fighting began mid January of '91, Americans were gripped with the fears of thousands of American causalities, and the expectation of a long protracted war against a fierce, battle-hardened enemy who had chemical weapons, and the willingness to use them.

By Christmas day 1990, when this originally aired, America was coming to grips with Saddam Hussein posing with frightened children, serving as human shields, & demonstrations in the streets, opposing our involvement in a foreign "War for Oil", and the continual debate by legislative leaders, who questioned every step the President & the Pentagon was making each & every day.
All of this happening while thousands of troops were being deployed to fight battles that had even the experts assessing a 40-50 thousand causality rate. All that makes the video even more endearing, and the effort by Walt Disney to present the family side of our commitment that much more special & commendable.

As it was 24 years ago, so it is now, Merry Christmas to all a long way from home, our thoughts & prayers are yours.