City Gets Christmas Tree From Iraqi Battlefield

In the fall of 2005, Spec. Raul Gomez, an Army National Guardsman from Bethlehem, was stationed in Ramadi in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, with the rest of Charlie Company of the 228th Forward Support Battalion.

The anti-insurgent campaign around the Allentown-based medic unit was fierce and bloody. As the holidays approached, morale sagged, Gomez said.

In an effort to bring some holiday cheer to his Army colleagues, Gomez conceived a plan to build a Christmas tree out of steel. And with the permission of his sergeant, Gomez and a team of his colleagues cut and assembled a tree from scrap ballistic steel during off hours over the next two weeks.

Five years later, the tree has found a permanent home in Bethlehem City Hall. Last week, in a reception in the City Hall lobby, Mayor John Callahan thanked Gomez for the donation and noted that it makes a fitting symbol of Bethlehem during the holidays.

"We felt like it was the perfect location," Callahan said. "This is not only the Christmas City, it is the Steel City."

Ballistic steel was chosen for the project, Gomez said, because there was an abundance of surplus steel at the base. It had been intended to provide armor for military vehicles, but was found to be too thin for the job.

The project started with a 6-foot by 6-foot plate of steel, which, with a plasma cutter, was fashioned into a snowflake-shaped base. It took more than eight hours one night to complete, but the next morning, Gomez's sergeant was beaming, telling him that the work was "inspiring."

Over the next couple of weeks, unit soldiers took turns helping Gomez build the trunk, limbs and branches. Upon completion, the 1,000-pound tree was decorated with lights and candy canes, as well as some non-traditional decorations: barbed wire was tinsel, hollowed out 50-caliber rounds were icicles and expended flash bang grenades, clips and tools were used as ornaments.

"The Steel Christmas Tree did exactly what it was designed to do," Gomez writes in his own description of the events of that year. "Many soldiers from the Charlie Company would come to visit the tree in celebration of the holidays. The buzz from the steel Christmas tree also brought soldiers, Marines and sailors from other units to come visit it.

"They would come to admire, take pictures and to converse about the tree among themselves. It even caught the attention of the Brigade command and was also visited by retired Lt. Col. Oliver North from Fox News."

When Charlie Company's tour in Iraq ended, Gomez had the tree disassembled, boxed and shipped to the company's Allentown armory home. But during preparation for an inspection, Gomez was told the tree had to be removed or sent to the scrap yard. He brought it home to his own garage where, last year, he was able to build a brace that would allow the tree to be reassembled without welding.

"This tree was constructed from the imagination and hearts of the soldiers from the Lehigh Valley as a reminder to themselves that within the cruelty and darkness of war, one can overcome their loneliness and sadness from being separated from their loved ones," Gomez wrote. "By working together, they were able to create a symbol of hope, love and giving."