Veterans and Thanksgiving/Holidays

[S. Rock]

how many of you Veterans remember spending Thanksgiving stationed in far away places ?

I spent 3 of them away from home. one year, we had some General fly in "to be with the men". the meal wasn't that special and we still had to go on duty. another year, I was invited to a friend's house to enjoy a meal prepared by his wife. the food was good, but no one said anything as we sat there and ate. we were all 5000 - 6000 miles away from home and each of us was thinking about our families back home. it was very quite and eerie. I'll never forget that feeling. as I said, the food was good(way better than the Mess Hall), but we were all somewhere else.

so, what were your experiences ?

 

[redcoats1976]

ate at the mess hall one year,the next year the new wife and i ate thanksgiving dinner at taco bell.year after that we were living in a little trailer in colorado springs.had a real turkey and i forgot to take the giblet bag out before stuffing the bird.thats what happens when you get baked before the bird does...

 

[acstorfer]

My squadron did our own thing. It was great. I actually really loved the people I was stationed with so we always had great holiday celebrations.

 

[Frogfur]

We shared everything. Smashed Brownies, candy and beer.

 

[parts]

Delivered 10 Turkey dinners to Vets that are in bad situations..this AM..
I am tired but Thrilled to do it..every year..
wish I could do 100.. But had 20 more for others (new immigrants) that either can't afford or NEVER knew what Thanksgiving IS..
Teaching America,,
Great morning..

 

[Sct13]

Oh yea..... Christmas in South Korea .... I pulled duty for someone, no point at all celebrating anything ....

On new years eve I watched Ghostbusters on a reel to reel film projector. Projected on a wall.... by myself .... For fun I ran it backwards at midnight!!! True story

 

[S. Rock]

We shared everything. Smashed Brownies, candy and beer.

yeah, us, too. however, one year my mom sent a pecan pie. I ate that all by myself.

 

[Frogfur]

yeah, us, too. however, one year my mom sent a pecan pie. I ate that all by myself.

What we really did rock is, everyone shared anything they got from home. Stale at times due to shipping, crushed and or smashed, out dated etc. Mail was frequently read out loud (other than dear john)letters. You found out about those later. Pictures of their girl. Etc.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Ate a decent bit of turkey the squadron had sent down to us, when I was deployed to Spain.

Rugged, rugged duty, I tell ya.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Delivered 10 Turkey dinners to Vets that are in bad situations..this AM..
I am tired but Thrilled to do it..every year..
wish I could do 100.. But had 20 more for others (new immigrants) that either can't afford or NEVER knew what Thanksgiving IS..
Teaching America,,
Great morning..

That's the stuff, right there.

 

[cybermgk]

Spent Christmas and New Years in Basic Training.

 

[KP]

I spent four of them in the service. The first was in Vietnam and I do remember it. It was real food. Christmas was a bit different as we had orange kool aid and C ration stew. The next three were in Germany and the first of those I was on separate rations so we did not go to the mess hall. Which means I ate something German somewhere. The last one I do not remember if I ate at the mess hall or not since I was about 14 days short for separation.

 

[Evo8]

Had 6 Thanksgivings away from home. Most memorable was at basic training where everyone was pretty much paranoid because our DS's were the ones serving us at the DFAC. No one got seconds because we knew we'd be getting smoked later.

 

[Tone deaf]

Ate a decent bit of turkey the squadron had sent down to us, when I was deployed to Spain.

Rugged, rugged duty, I tell ya.

I'd like to be stationed in Spain for a spell. There are a couple of clubs in Barca that would make excellent outposts...

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'd like to be stationed in Spain for a spell. There are a couple of clubs in Barca that would make excellent outposts...

I was down south at Moròn AB, about forty miles from Seville.Before the war started, we were busy but days off and wouls go into the village, or hop the motor pool into Utrera, about 30,000. Amazing night life.

I'll stop embarrassing myself griping about the hardships

 

[nitrodave08]

I did 21yrs and 17 of them were away from family, every friggin' holiday. Germany/Korea or flying off to some other country so that the SecDef could spend a holiday with the troops.

My last year in, being a senior enlisted member, I was part of the turkey tearers. 135 turkeys that were either brought in from ovens or the 100 deep fat fryers. The local news station came in and provided tunes. We took 30 heaping 18x24" deep trays to the VA and the local shelters. We were so busy that we forgot to eat haha.

Korea spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, in prep or in actual Y2K. The geniuses at command decided that for my birthday (Jan 15) we would stay out in the field proving that a system would not work. It was colder than a well diggers ass. Our water buff froze solid, we tried to bring it into a tent with the trash can heater, but it was not thawing out for crap. I popped the top and took a soldering iron and carved out small blocks of ice so that we would have water. After a few blocks we violated Korean law and built a fire underneath it to heat it up. Home base could not get us some fuel for the generators because we were so far away. They told us to syphon fuel from the trucks to power the gens. I was on the horn with command bitching about it and "mysteriously" the site lost power. They finally gave in to reason and recalled us all back.

The most memorable holiday was Easter in Crete, Greece. One of the guys mentioned that his family would have lamb. So we went to local butcher and tried our damnest to ask for lamb but the language barrier was being a bear. I did the baaaa thing and he took us to the back where the pens where the animals were kept. As we saw the lambs I clapped my hands and did like a touchdown motion. He looked at me and kept pointing to the lambs. I finally said yes and pointed too. Through many gestures we figured out that we were supposed to come back in 30 min. We got there and one of the females picked up the wrapped meat and then screamed as she dropped it back on the counter "IT'S F(*^ing WARM!!!" I guess that when I pointed to the lambs, I picked the one to be slaughtered. There were a couple of people that passed on the dinner that night.

 

[redcoats1976]

it was freakin cold in korea,i remember having to reach my arm into a jeep gas tank and snap a frozen gas filter sock off in the tank so the jeep would run.

 

[Kris Ford]

Spent Christmas and New Years in Basic Training.

Me too!! Boot camp at RTC Great Lakes, 1992. (I was there 26OCT to 28DEC)
..and some Thanksgivings and Christmas's on board..which my favorite turkey, mashed taters and stuffing meal was served..sometimes we'd get that randomly at other times..and something as simple as that made a world of difference.

 

[dave b]

My first year in the service, spent Thanksgiving 5,000 miles from home during basic in British Columbia. ( I'm from the east coast). I remember a very traditional turkey dinner, but not much else. The next year Thanksgiving was spent bobbing around on the Grand Banks off the south coast of Newfoundland. Don't remember the meal, but for sure it was good. For certain, the Navy always had the best food in the services. That was '78. Spent the next eight years going to sea fairly regularly, so I probably spent at least one more Thanksgiving away from home. As a young man it wasn't a big deal. Definitely appreciate Thanksgiving with family more now. Currently spending a second Thanksgiving at mom's place in Florida. Twas an awesome feast yesterday.

 

[cybermgk]

Me too!! Boot camp at RTC Great Lakes, 1992. (I was there 26OCT to 28DEC)
..and some Thanksgivings and Christmas's on board..which my favorite turkey, mashed taters and stuffing meal was served..sometimes we'd get that randomly at other times..and something as simple as that made a world of difference.

I did do every Thanksgiving down in the SAC Underground Command post every thanksgiving (being single and the only Jr enlisted, and then lowest NCO in a unit of higher NCOs and Officers had it's drawbacks). That said, The AF provided a heck of a spread for those of us that pulled that duty.