Advanced Individual Training Soldiers from the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion tie a Christmas tree to the top of a car Dec. 4 at Thunder Mountain Activity Center, Fort Huachuca, Ariz. The Directorate of Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation are delivering the spirit of Christmas one tree at a time during the annual Trees for Troops event.

Spc. David Casey, 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, and his son Jessie carry the Christmas tree they picked out to their car. The Directorate of Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation and Advance Individual Training Soldiers from the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion deliver the spirit of Christmas one tree at a time during the annual Trees for Troops event Dec. 4 at the Thunder Mountain Activity Center at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

The Directorate of Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation deliver the spirit of Christmas one tree at a time during the annual Trees for Troops event Dec. 4 at the Thunder Mountain Activity Center at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

FORT HUACHUCA, Ariz. -- The Directorate of Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation (FMWR) delivered the spirit of Christmas one tree at a time during the annual Trees for Troops event Dec. 4 at Thunder Mountain Activity Center here.

“Christmas Spirit Foundation, Trees for Troops and FedEx team up with tree growers giving live Christmas trees to posts around the country,” said James Thomas, events coordinator at FMWR. “For the past fifteen years we’ve given trees away for [service members] here on Fort Huachuca.”

Trees will go to active-duty service members on Dec.4, and on Dec. 5, to retirees, Reserve and National Guard service members, he said.

“Now we feel like Christmas has started, we brought the hot chocolate [and] we brought the donuts,” said Stacy Sandlin, marketing manager at FMWR. “We have the Christmas music blasting, and the heaters are going.”

Soldiers from the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion started at 6 a.m. on this exceptionally cold morning unloading a FedEx truck full of Christmas trees into the Thunder Mountain Activity Center’s outdoor pavilion.

“We got here before the crack of dawn,” said Sandlin. “I think we have 125 trees this year.”

By 7 a.m. the trees were laid out in pristine, green rows ready for families to choose, she said.

“We are here to assist the MWR and help families load their trees,” said Pvt. Benjamin Huh, a student Advanced Individual Training (AIT) student with the 309th MI Bn.

Huh is one of the eight AIT volunteers ready to serve up some Christmas cheer, he said.

Spc. David Casey, 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, and his wife, Ruth, asked their son Jessie and daughter Aislyn to pick one of the trees as they walked through the rows.

Jessie helped his dad carry a tree and load it into their car.

“We will stand the tree up when we get home,” said Ruth. “When my husband gets home from work, we will start decorating.”

Each military family has their own decorating ideas.

“We have a combination of themes because I am a huge Star Wars fan, my wife is a Nightmare Before Christmas fan, and I have three girls at home,” laughed Sgt. Codee Parker, 18th Military Police Detachment. “So it’s a Star Wars, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Disney princess-themed tree.”

“I’ve been here for three years now, and every year I’ve gotten a free tree,” said Parker. “My family absolutely loves it.”

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Fort Huachuca is home to the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM)/9th Army Signal Command and more than 48 supported tenants representing a diverse, multiservice population. Our unique environment encompasses 964 square miles of restricted airspace and 2,500 square miles of protected electronic ranges, key components to the national defense mission.

Located in Cochise County, in southeast Arizona, about 15 miles north of the border with Mexico, Fort Huachuca is an Army installation with a rich frontier history. Established in 1877, the Fort was declared a national landmark in 1976.

We are the Army’s Home. Learn more at https://home.army.mil/huachuca/