What is the most memorable thanksgiving that you spent while in the military?

Thanksgiving 2009 in Afghanistan with the Under Secretary of the Army, BG Milley and Steve Lee (Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army and BOD USO) visiting small outposts in Eastern Afghanistan, decorating Soldiers, eating five Thanksgiving dinners, serving Soldiers, and ending the day at sunset singing 'God Bless America' with Blackhawk rotors providing the accompaniment.

I was in CAP units in VN. Was expecting "C" rations for Thanksgiving. A friend I had been stationed with at USNH Key West gave me a Lipton's Chicken Noodle Soup packet. Reminded me of home. Turned into a great Thanksgiving.

The most memorable Thanksgiving I had was in 1966 when I was stationed at Mcmurdo Base in the Antarctic. I must admit that most of the chow we had was very good, we were fed well considering where we were.

In 1974 Okinawa Japan at Torii Station! Every service member was given a baked turkey with an American Flag that had our name on each turkey marked and displayed on stainless steel racks! Thankyou Colonel Verneau for thinking of your men! ASA all the Way!

In 1978, I was assigned to a battalion in the 3rd Armor Division in the Federal Republic of Germany. The day before Thanks giving I was asked by a buddy of mine if I could pull Staff Duty Officer for him on Thanksgiving as he had been asked by the Battalion Commander to sub for another junior officer who had family members drop in unexpectedly for Thanksgiving and now his wife had invited a German family over for an authentic Thanksgiving dinner with them, not knowing that he accepted the SDO job from the CO. Being single I accepted as SDO ended around 1800 on Thanksgiving anyway. Around 1100 the originally assigned officer shows up at the SDO office with his wife and a complete Thanksgiving lunch for me as a reward for being the guy who eventually ended up with his duty. I felt honored. At around 1230, my buddy shows up with his wife and a complete Thanksgiving lunch for me to pay me back. I felt honored again, as did the SDNCO who was assigned with me. At around 1400, I was required to attend the battalions Thanksgiving Day luncheon at the Mess hall for all soldiers assigned to the Kaserne without families. The cooks really put together a super special layout and I was the COs representative so the guest of honor and again was very honored but very full. When I returned to my SDO office I was met by the CO and his wife whom had stopped by with a plate of left overs from their dinner because the COs wife was a gourmet cook and they both thought what I did, at the last minute, was exceptional and wanted to thank me. I again felt honored with a little nausea and the SDNCO was laughing his butt off as he helped me polish it off while the COs wife pointed out how each item was prepared. At 1800 I was released from duty, in time to go over to my Platoon Sergeants quarters to have dinner with them as was my original plan.

I don't celebrate Thanksgiving anymore, because on 2 Thanksgivings, in the mid 60's, I will never forget as my dead and wounded fellow paratroopers lay all around me, choppers were bringing in turkey and other Thanksgiving fixings, as they reloaded with the dead and wounded on those same birds. I haven't had turkey since, nor will I ever get those memories from my mind. I help prepare the meal now, but always make an excuse not to be there, so I don't ruin my friends or family's good times. Thanksgiving has really become my Memorial Day!

1975: We were given flu shots the day before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving morning I awoke (having had visions of turkeys around in my head) sick as a dog. Those dreams became the closest I came to turkeys that year

At Incirlik (CDI then) AB in 1971, explaining to a young (so was I) Turk who worked in my area how the holiday started and how it has morphed. A single airman, I always volunteered to work on Turkey Day and Christmas so those with families with them wouldn't have to... which I hope they were thankful for.

1978 mainside Levine forgot to send use thanksgiving dinner, we where tad to moose oakgrove 40 miles north of lemons, so the cooks told use to go out nd any thing that fly's, has 4 legs, at the end of the day we had a feast,lol no complaint here the next day Lejune trucked up dinner, 41 years ago remember it well

BEST food EVER!! Back in the very late 1960's we were TAD from MCAS Beaufort, SC to Key West NAS. The night before Thanksgiving, I had the only car and about five of us went looking for something to do, and eat. We found downtown Key West was just about dead because of the holidays. I guess we were a bit too lazy to drive to Miami. Had we known and with a bit more ambition, we could have seen Janis Joplin, and the door's Jim Morrison getting arrested during their concert. However, we did run into this guy who showed us around a closed up downtown Key West. We were all getting hungry, so he told me to drive a few miles away and said he had a great way to get us so food. He directed us to some docks, he went down into a boat that he evidently worked on. He came back loaded down with 2 or 3 grocery bags full of shrimp, and some lobster! We went back downtown to where he was staying, and the six of us must have eaten all 20-30 pounds of that fresh shrimp and lobster! If you ever had really really fresh steamed shrimp before, you'd know just how we could polish off that much food.

I guess in retrospect, that's my Forrest Gump's / Lt. Dan's story! As a tribute to Gary Sinise, here's a great synopsis of his character, that I'm quoting from: https://www.shmoop.com/forrest-gump/gary-sinise.html Just by playing that role, must have given Gary a tremendous amount of understanding empathy for combat vets, to then start helping them, even more than Forrest had helped Gary's character:

-------- Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise) ---------
Lieutenant Dan Taylor, Forrest's superior officer in Vietnam, has a lot to live up to. As Forrest tells us, "Somebody in his family had fought and died in every single American war." (Question: wouldn't it be more impressive if someone had fought and lived? Then again, we don't know much about war.)

It's not that Lt. Dan has a death wish or anything. In fact, he's a downright decent guy, and definitely someone you want on your side in a war. He's got two interests: protecting his men and winning the war in Vietnam, and he does everything he can to fulfill those two life goals, including swearing at Forrest to leave him to die when he loses his legs in a firefight.

Forrest, of course, carts off Lt. Dan anyway, and the experience nearly wrecks the guy. Instead of dying a hero, he ends up a wheelchair-bound cripple (in his view). In his own words: "I should have died out there with my men, but now, I'm nothing but a goddamn cripple, a legless freak!"

Gee, don't go easy on yourself or anything, buddy.

Destiny or Bust
Lt. Dan thought it was his destiny to die on the battlefield just like his ancestors. And check out that key word: destiny. If we've learned anything from Forrest Gump, it's that destiny doesn't come pre-installed, like some version of Windows you can't escape. We write our own destinies through our actions; it's not determined by who we are intrinsically. (Think back to Forrest's "stupid is as stupid does.")

So, when Lt. Dan says to Forrest, "Now, you listen to me. We all have a destiny. Nothing just happens. It's all part of a plan!" we're supposed to realize that he's wrong. Thinking that way turns Lt. Dan into a man who's convinced that his life doesn't matter since he's supposed to be dead. As you can imagine, the consequences are not good. He ends up sliding into brutal depression and alcoholism, and he adopts just about every abusive personality trait you can imagine.

But, Lt. Dan is a man of his word. You might say that he does what he says he will. So, when he cynically laughs that he'll join Forrest as first mate if Forrest ever does set up as a shrimping captain, he keeps his word: "I told you if you were ever a shrimp boat captain that I'd be your first mate. Well, here I am."

By doing that—by taking action for once rather than bemoaning his loss of destiny—Lt. Dan actually writes himself into a pretty sweet future as the part-owner of a multimillion-dollar shrimping company, a savvy early investor in Apple, the owner of a fancy pair of prosthetic legs, and, of course, a man with a hot fiancée.

Not bad for a guy who was supposed to die on a battlefield in Vietnam.

--------------------- Finally, thinking back about that time. I'm thankful now and remember those that were busy fighting thanklessly, while we got to eat and enjoy ourselves during that era.