A ‘Hallmark Christmas’ movie in Iraq

By Patrick Seaman

It’s Christmas time, and like many people, I’m looking forward to time with family and friends, and celebrating various traditions. Like most families, we have a lot of the “normal” Christmas traditions: decorating the tree, church on Christmas eve, a big family dinner, etc. Our clan, however, has one that many of our friends who know us would be somewhat surprised to see. Sometime during the holiday season, my wife and I will gather around the TV, assemble the kids (and now, in-laws, significant others, and grandkids), light the fire, and watch… a Hallmark Christmas movie.

This is shocking to many of our friends. Even more shocking-it isn’t my wife’s idea; it’s mine. I am not the stereotypical Hallmark Christmas movie watching guy (I think…). I’m recently retired from a large city police department, where I was a detective with a specialized unit. I am still serving in the US Army Reserve, and once heard a training unit that I was observing refer to me as, “the Major that looks like he just retired from the NFL.” I took that as quite the compliment. I am, it has taken me years to realize (much to my wife’s chagrin) a large human being. I like guns, knives, lifting weights, and all of that sort of stuff. So why does this big veteran, retired cop feel the need to watch a ‘chick flick’ at Christmas time every year?

Read on, trooper.

In 2006, I was enlisted in the Air National Guard, serving as a Security Forces NCO. We were based at FOB Warrior, in Kirkuk, northern Iraq. I was an area supervisor for a flight with the responsibility of guarding a large section of the perimeter of the base. This was accomplished by troops in fortified towers along the fence line, or wall, and I had about 18 kilometers to cover.

Being a supervisor, an E-6 at the time, I had a thin-skinned Humvee with one troop up in the turret-except there was no turret. Or shield, for that matter. Whichever troop I had with me was up there with just the M249 on a pintle mount. My role was to back up the towers if they came under engagement until the QRF arrived. I was also responsible for performing post checks, inspecting the fence line and sensors, and handling all day-to-day tasks that come with ‘taking care of the troops’—the things we NCOs are meant to do.

I would also get chow for my troops via carryout boxes from the DFAC, since we worked about 13-hour shifts, I tried to get them a good hot meal or two. A benefit to me personally was that, being mobile, I would stop in at the sector command post and could use the phone or computer to touch base with my family every so often. At that time, if you went to the MWR tent, you could only call home once or twice a week, depending on what base you were on. We worked six days on, one day off, doing guard duty on the perimeter and law enforcement on the base.

Christmas was approaching, and we were all looking forward to the big meal. As anyone who has deployed during GWOT to a big FOB can tell you, it’s usually a nice spread. Since fortunately I wasn’t sick the day they taught leadership at Army Officer Candidate School (a long story for another time; but I was an officer in the Army National Guard, then an NCO in the Air National Guard, and now an officer in the Army Reserve) I got a wild idea.

All our towers were two-man posts, but on Christmas Day, I convinced my NCOIC to join me in manning a tower solo while I took another one on my own. I also persuaded our chain of command to allow a few other towers to operate with just one man. This gave more troops the chance to be off duty and enjoy the big holiday meal in the DFAC. They would also have a better chance of being able to call home on the actual holiday.

We got another E-7 from another flight (like a platoon for the Soldiers & Marines reading this) to take my spot as area supervisor for the night. So, we were able to let at least six of our guys the holiday off that would’ve otherwise been on duty. Since we were shorthanded, and the DFAC wasn’t allowing carry out meals for the holiday meal, my Christmas dinner was a cold MRE up in a gun tower alone. No foul, that’s the way it goes. I was glad we were able to let some of our troops get a good meal and call home on the actual holiday.

The next day, it was back to business as usual, and I happened to be off. Chow was back to normal. I went to the MWR tent, and it was deserted. There was a TV & DVD player, and some miscellaneous Christmas decorations and DVDs that hadn’t been cleaned up or taken. I found one DVD that was a straight-up chick flick. Starved for entertainment, and totally alone, I put in the 2004 Hallmark Christmas rom-com “A Boyfriend for Christmas,” starring Kelli Williams, Patrick Muldoon (readers here may know him best from ‘Starship Troopers’), Martin Mull, and Charles Durning as Santa.

It’s actually a pretty good story. Without revealing too much of the plot, I think it resonated with me even more because it mirrors my own life in some ways—my wife and I met as kids and later reconnected as young adults, much like the protagonists. I don’t consider myself an authority on Hallmark Christmas movies, but most of them seem to have the same story: the girl goes off to college, gets a job in the big city, is all alone pursuing her career, but goes back home to her small town for Christmas, only to meet the hunky blue collar guy she blew off in high school… and you can figure out the rest. This isn’t like that. Thank God. Santa actually has a pretty big role in this story, and we get the standard happy ending.

When I got home in 2007, I happened to be flipping through channels around Christmas time that year. As luck would have it, it was coming on. I got all four of our kids together with my wife, and we sat and watched it. They groaned at the cheesiness of the film, and it has become a running joke during our annual watch party as they boo the ‘villains’ of the movie, and remark how poor the protagonist’s communication skills are (this whole thing would’ve been 10 minutes long if people would just talk!).

But the movie itself isn’t the point. As it took a while for the kids to realize, the point of the “Boyfriend for Christmas” watch party, isn’t to appreciate this cinematic masterpiece. It’s about appreciating time with family. As a cop and a Soldier, I’ve missed a lot of holidays with my wife and kids. Watching this movie with them and reflecting on a time when I spent Christmas completely alone, makes the time with family feel even more special. And that, truly, is a wonderful gift.

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This first appeared in The Havok Journal on January 14, 2025.

Patrick Seaman has over 34 years of military service. He has been a PFC in the Army National Guard, a Tech Sergeant in the Air National Guard, and is currently serving as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve.

A retired police officer, he served as a Counter Terrorism detective in his last law enforcement assignment. 

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.