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

Most memorable Thanksgiving was on Mountain Home Air Force Base Idaho 1963 as a dependent. Dad was E4 $93.00 a month. I was school age with two brothers. We spent the Day at the Thanksgiving Dinner sponsored on the base. The kitchen staff and support personnel prepared a meal that I know now had every traditional Thanksgiving meal staple and much more. They created activities and provided obviously a very memorable day. A meal that Mom could not have possibly created because of budget priorities. Dad did not have the rank for base housing so even the drive to the base had to be budgeted from the gas money that was only used for Dad's transportation to the base. Just saw this post from the VA and immediately recalled that Thanksgiving 56 years ago.
My thanks are for the guys that worked their Thanksgiving to provide memories for young troops and their dependents that otherwise would have had the Spam Turkey and a can of Cranberries.
My thanks are for all the Airmen that still are volunteering for such activities and are caring on taking care of the Air Force family. The Base Commanders that make base facilities available.
56 Thanksgivings later and that is still the one that brings a smile to may face and gratefulness to the people that made it possible. In addition to our Troops deployed let us not forget their families back at home at these holidays. When I am asked how long I served I tell them 18 years as a dependent and 4 active. There are a lot of us out there.

I remember one time Barack Obama came to camp Arifjan to visit the troops. Michele wrassled with some of the troops and his daughters gave out soiled underwear to the troops. Oh wait, he was too busy bowing down to the caliphate, my bad

Thanksgiving in Perth Australia while on a 6 month TDY

Thanksgiving 2004...IFII...Camp Liberty; it was just a month later that DIFAC at FOB Marez was hit by a suicide bomber...26 KIA.

camp lee at the border outpost near Bad Kissinger Germany on rotation with E co 2/11 Acr ended up spending Christmas and New Years there and that got old

Basic Training Ft. Dix 1967. One of our fellow “volunteers” was a Yale graduate from the Upper East side of Manhattan. He was gracious enough to invite two of us to join him in NYC. Needless to say, his family was well to do. The meal was catered by a deli, but wonderful. Very generous of him and much appreciated. When we were assigned to Armor AIT, he took the Army up on an offer to drop OCS, become a Shake and Bake E 5 Tanker Sergeant, and receive orders for Korea. Later I learned he ended up in the Nam anyway. Probably one of those for the needs of the Army things?

Just saw where the President was visiting the troops. 1974 Thanksgiving in Korea

Kosovo 1999 was my favorite Thanksgiving military memory. They had the locals in Kosovo dress up as pilgrims and Indians

Actually I had two. The first was while I was attached to the Joint Security Area, Pan Mun Jom Korea, 1963. I was in the Army as a military policeman. My second was while I was attached to the 560 MP company, detachment “F”, Pleiku Vietnam, 1964. In Korea, I was asked to defect by a NK officer, good English to defect, I in turn asked him to defect. Also chased a Korean defector up to a NK guard post and just missed him. He made it in to the guard post by an arm’s length. One night working the swing shift, my partner and I were working the UN half of the “bridge of no return”.There was a ground fog and I walked out to the middle of the bridge. A couple of minutes later two NK guards began advancing toward me. I let them get about 10-15 feet from me, when I pulled out my night stick. That stopped them and I also shouted for my partner. He came out of our guard post and seeing him, the NKs retreated to their end of the bridge
Vietnam after Korea I initiated one occurrence that resulted in a major policy change from Washington. It was a late Sunday afternoon in Pleiku. My partner and I were in the town on patrol. On a main street, which featured several bars, we were flagged down by a Vietnamese woman. She pointed to one bar and said we go. Inside the bar, it looked like a brawl had taken place. I ascertained that an American civilian contractor had come in drunk. He proceeded to throw furniture, break the owner’s shoulder and fired one or more rounds into the mirror. A female employee received some bruises. At this time in Vietnam, there was no “status of df forces agreement”. All American and third party civilian nationals were supposedly under the jurisdiction of the Vietnamese civilian police, “white mice”. In the bar nobody mentioned contacting the Vietnamese police. Darkness was falling when a bar employee pointed out the front window at a Jeep going by. She said it was the suspect. My partner and I ran from the bar and jumped into our jeep in pursuit. He lead us out of town on the highway to ll Corp HQ. The Jeep’s driver was a Filipino and he pulled over. Running around to the passenger’s I saw the suspect reaching into the glove box for a pistol. I of course had my .45 Colt in my hand and I told him not to be foolish. I grabbed his pistol, pulled him out of the Jeep and handcuffed him. I recognized him as living in the HQ Advisors compound. What actions I had initiated up to this point, I had no legal authority to do so. My Provost Marshall had a fit when I explained what had transpired. The upshot was that State wanted me courtmartialed and Defense supported my actions. This being carried out at WH level. President Johnson sided with Defense, I wasn’t courtmartialed and a “status of forces” was enacted between the US and South Vietnam, putting all American and third party civilian nationals under the jurisdiction of the US army military police.

Yongsan, Korea. 2003. Being prior service(Marine Corps), I was the 2nd oldest living in the barracks missing my kids...but these kids gave us all memorable Thanksgiving. None older than 21 and all of 'em with serious cooking skills...well, except one and we just stuck him in a chair with his beer and get entertained by our goofy jokes. We actually had a genuine Native American in our Comm Shop and he broke out his N. A. attire with headdress and proceeded to do a "dance" that was traditionally done to give thanks for the success of the hunt and for the bounty of the feast. I'm not good at describing things, so I'll just say it's something I'll never forget. The whole thing combined gave me some awesome memories and made me not miss my kids so much.