NZDF personnel spending Christmas overseas

It’s a multinational Christmas for around 150 members of the Defence Force deployed overseas for the festive season.

All of them will get to enjoy a great Christmas meal and some downtime where possible, with the bonus of sharing the special day with people from other nations.

Take a look at the video we’ve put together of our teams sending their best wishes back to loved ones here in New Zealand.

The Multinational Force and Observers team in the Sinai recorded their Christmas message with eight other nationalities they are deployed with. The Building Capacity Mission in Iraq is an Anzac one, so there’ll be no shortage of Australians there for some friendly sporting rivalry on Christmas Day.

Over in Bahrain with Combined Task Force 150, the Kiwis joined with their Australian and Canadian friends to say Merry Christmas, whilst two of the Kiwis in South Korea delivered their message from the Demilitarized Zone.

Our team at Scott Base were feeling the appreciation from back home, holding their gratefully received RSA Christmas parcels whilst filming their message on the ice.

We thank every one of our personnel for their professionalism, courage, commitment, comradeship and integrity and wish them all a Merry Christmas.