Capt. Todd Christmas didn’t enter the Corps of Cadets as a freshman, but he worked to earn the respect of his peers to make up for the lost time. Christmas earned his Corps Brass along with the freshmen in Company B-1 as a junior transfer student from the New Mexico Military Institution.
Christmas, Class of 2000, was one of the seven Fort Hood soldiers to die when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed at 7 a.m. on Monday, 15 miles north of Temple. The helicopter was en route to Texarkana when it crashed into a television transmitter tower.
Matt Montgomery, Class of 2000, was one of Christmas’ peers in Company B-1 and said Christmas blended well with his peers right away after transferring to Texas A&M.
“Most of your bonding with your buddies (in the Corps) occurs in the first two years, so it’s hard to come in as a junior,” Montgomery said. “Todd was the exception to that rule. He fit in very quickly and well with his buddies. He took the Corps very seriously and honored the traditions.”
John Hardcastle, Class of 2000 and a member of B-1, said he remembers Christmas as someone who looked forward to military service.
“He always loved the military; he was always talking about how he wanted to be a career military guy,” Hardcastle said.
Christmas joined the Army in August of 2001 and served a year in Operation Iraqi Freedom before returning to Fort Hood to serve as an air defense artillery officer. John Lennox, Class of 2000, said Christmas’ outfit in Iraq suffered casualties, so Christmas’ recent return from Iraq was celebrated.
“After he made it through a year in Iraq, we thought he was clear,” he said. “Todd loved it up into the end; he was excited about getting to ride in a Black Hawk.”
Montgomery said Christmas was a positive person to be around and that he was well liked by his friends.
“He always had a smile on his face, never complained and was serious about getting a military contract and serving his country,” he said.
Lennox said Christmas was loved and respected by everyone he knew.
“I’d like to say that I was his best friend, but if you knew Todd, you were his best friend. He had 10 best friends,” Lennox said.
Hardcastle said that although he didn’t know Christmas as well as some of his other peers in the Corps, he admired him.
“I always pictured him as a guy that every father wanted their daughters to marry, and somebody everyone would want as their friend,” he said.
Christmas graduated from A&M in August 2001 with a degree in agricultural economics, and days later on Aug. 18, 2001, married his wife, Erica, a 2001 speech communications graduate.
Funeral services for all seven soldiers killed will be held at the Fort Hood chapel at 10 a.m. Friday. Services honoring Christmas will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the Fort Hood chapel and at 11 a.m. on Dec. 6 at his family’s ranch in Wagon Mound, N.M.