- [first lines]
- Cuffy Sanders: It isn't fair!
- Pvt. Fuzzy Knight: What's not fair?
- Cuffy Sanders: The Captain promised me he'd take me back to America for Christmas, where there's snow and where it's cold.
- Pvt. Fuzzy Knight: Yeah, I know, and the Colonel promised the Captain he could go, 'cause the General promised the Colonel, but somebody higher than the general changed the general's mind; down through the chain of command came a big, fat, round, "No!" My boy, you're in the army, you know.
- Capt. Michael Gallant: Christmas is a lot more than gifts, Cuffy.
- Cuffy Sanders: I know. It's turkey and snow and Christmas trees.
- Capt. Michael Gallant: It's a lot more than that. It's peace in the hearts of men of good will everywhere. It's love for your fellow man.
- Capt. Michael Gallant: Right now, there are a dozen men out there in the desert. They're not spending a comfortable Christmas Eve in their barracks - they're out in the dark and the cold. Do you know why, Cuffy?
- Cuffy Sanders: No, sir.
- Capt. Michael Gallant: Because they're men of good will. They weren't assigned to this duty. They volunteered because they love you, Cuffy. There can be no greater Christmas present than that.
- Cuffy Sanders: A fine Christmas I made for everybody... stuck out here in the desert.
- Capt. Michael Gallant: The first Christmas Eve was on a desert just like this, Cuffy.
- Cuffy Sanders: Without any snow or Christmas trees?
- Capt. Michael Gallant: No snow, no Christmas trees - just sand and oasises and little towns of mud brick. Towns like Taroudant and Zagora, Wazazant... only this town was called Bethlehem.
- Cuffy Sanders: And those were the first Christmas presents - that gold and that other stuff?
- Capt. Michael Gallant: Not exactly, Cuffy. The first Christmas present - and the greatest - was Jesus himself, who brought to all men the promise of peace, the example of sacrifice and the lesson of love.