My first Christmas away from home was certainly one for the memory books.

I was 18 years old and nearing the end of my Navy boot camp experience. So, those of us in my company — Company C017 — had earned the privilege of being “Adopt-a-Sailor” participants through the Naval Training Center-Orlando USO.

The Adopt-a-Sailor program was pretty simple. Any family living within a 50-mile radius of the base could come to the USO on Christmas morning and “adopt” a pair of sailors to spend the day with them. There were two lines, one for families and one for sailors, and where the two met, the adoptions took place.