Saudi version of holidays a mental
From Associated Press reports
IN EASTERN SAUDI ARABIA
The only thing white about Christmas
here is the desert sand.
Families and loved ones are far away
for the American military personnel
deployed in Operation Desert Shield.
Outward Christmas displays are
barred so as not to offend the Islamic
sensibilities of the Saudi Arabians.
Twinkling lights don't go with mili
tary tents.
It's enough to give the toughest troops
the Christmas blues. But a psychologist
says Desert .stcld won't be completely
barren of holiday cheer.
"There will be kind of a blue haze
over everything. It's kind of a funk,"
said Capt. Frank Mullins, 54, of Mobile,
Ala., a psychologist at the U.S. Navy's
Fleet No. 5 Hospital.
"But the average person will find a
lot of solace being among friends,
sharing Christmas dinner, singing a
couple of carols," he said.
What helps people get through the
holidays are personal things sent from
home: a card, a trinket, a snapshot,
Christmas music, yule decorations,
Mullins said.
Army Maj. Doug Bidle of Chicago
received a candy can&house complete
with fake snow and an artificial tree
from his wife. .
Navy Petty Officer Diane Escobar of
Austin, Texas, has a nativity scene, and
a paratrooper in the Army's 82nd Air
borne Division was mailed the artificial
tree his father had in Vietnam.
"The troops here should try to have
as normal a Christmas as they can, with
as many customs and rituals as they can
get from home," Mullins said.
"People are upset, don't get me
wrong. If you don't feel upset, maybe
there's something wrong with you," he
said. "They may get depressed. They
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may cry a little bit. But they'll be fine
the next day.
"We don't expect to be overflowing
with psychiatric casualties on Christmas
Day."
What's also absent in Saudi Arabia is
spiked eggnog and alcoholic spirits
because liquor is banned in Saudi Arabia.
But Mullins said the absence of booze,
a depressant, is one of the reasons why
the mood of the troops has been so good
despite the desert life, scorpions, vipers,
isolation and harsh living conditions.
"I'll be the first to say I'm glad there's
no alcohol," he said. "What it does is cut
down on the mental health business.
We've had surprisingly little busi
ness." 'The truth of the matter is the mental
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health of many of troops is going to
improve," Mullins said. "They can cope
with normal developmental pressures
without alcohol.
"They're going to find they can en
gage in more adult behavior and operate
in their environment more realistically."
Most of the problems troops have
sought help for are personal ones: the
Dear John letters, the death of a loved
one back home, the first child bom
while a serviceman is on desert duty.
The military recognizes that stress,
fatigue and anxiety can be daily enemies
than can dull the fighting edge of young
service members.
"The kids we're seeing are not
bitching about living in the sand,"
Mullins said. "The harshness of the
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struggle
living conditions since we've been here
has not been that big a problem.
"How many times have you heard
that morale is good when people are
bitching? When people get too depressed
to bitch, you've got problems. They
withdraw socially, go into themselves."
What's important is the coping skills
that people develop from the hardships,
the psychologist said.
"For a lot of young men here, this
may be the major growth experience in
their lives," Mullins said.
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