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

Back in Jan. 1979 I enlisted into the Air Force with a delay until the end of November. What I didn't realize at the time was my first full day in the service was the day before Thanksgiving. Because of the holiday we spent Wed-Sun as "Rainbows" (still in the clothes and long hair we arrived in). My timing had me in basic training Thankgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

1983- Flying reconnaissance missions out of Athens, Greece. I was scheduled to fly on Thanksgiving, but we had already planned to invite a bunch of the single guys from the squadron over for Thanksgiving. I landed late afternoon and drove to my apartment in Glyfada to a house full of my fellow airmen, and my wife and two children hosting them all. It was a great day! Both missions accomplished!

I actually have two very special memories about Thanksgiving. First, in 1982 when I was stationed at RAF Wethersfield in England as a Crash/Rescue Firefighter, it worked out that I would be working the holiday. All the firefighters, supervisors, chiefs and our loved ones and families got together at our central fire station for Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful feeling to be with the men and woman who had our backs during emergencies, our bosses who always backed us and all of the people we loved and shared our lives with off duty. But most of all was the backing of all our family members who came and supported us day after day. It was one large supportive and loving family. And not one of our families members or my fellow firefighters missed the event. Second, after cross training into the Safety field in 1985, I was stationed at George AFB in California. I was scheduled to attend supervisors safety training at Lowry AFB in Colorado during which Thanksgiving would fall. Being my second trip to Lowry, I met a fellow Safety specialist in Las Vegas and we both took our vehicles to Lowry and figured that on Thanksgiving we would go together to a restaurant off base for Thanksgiving dinner. But as it got closer, neither of us felt that anticipation or warmness of getting together with family and freinds for the holiday. As things turned out we were seperated into seperate classes and his class decided that they would all get together at one of his classmates house off base as he was stationed there and that everyone would bring a dish. So that left me alone for the holiday and no one in my class suggested anything about getting together. My class were all freindly with each other but it looked like I would be eating alone on Thanksgiving.
On the day before Thanksgiving, at the end of the training day, two of our instructors came into the classroom as we were getting ready to leave. They asked us all to please retake our seats as they had an assignment to issue for Thanksgiving Day. We all looked at each other like "really"? An assignment to complete on the holiday and turn in the next day? Wow!
The instructors explained that this assignment would be required by all of us and was designed not to determine our intellect but our character as investigators and our ability to seperate work and the things we see there from how we decompress and act when with family and freinds. We were totally confused needless to say. Then they told us that this would be a group assignment and all must attend, no excuses. They told us that they understood that this assignment was unusual because of the holiday but that they felt that it was necessary because of the things they observed in our interactions with each other during class time and how close with each other we'd become. We were totally confused.
Then they told us that they also felt that they had become more close with us than any previous classes and that they felt that allthough this assignment was to be completed on Thanksgiving, they said they hoped it would result in deeper freindships and working relationships for the future. Then they explained that the assignment was that each and every one of us would get together for some football watching and a Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings and drinks. We looked at each other and asked where we could get together and where in the heck we could cook all this food since we all were billeted in the NCO dorms but didnt have a kitchen. We asked if we could all go to a restuarant off base and were told no. That the assignment had to be completed on base. We had no idea how to do this. We were exasperated.
Both instructors laughed and told us that because of the closeness of our class to each other and to our instructors, and thier feelings that none of us should be alone on this holiday away from our family and freinds, our assignment was that all of us were to show up at our instructors home on Thanksgiving in comfortable clothing as they were opening thier homes to us for a Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings and drinks with them and thier families who wanted to share thier love with us. It was a wonderful thing to do for us. When we attended, we were lovingly welcomed into their homes, (they lived next door to each other), by thier families and children. We all were hugged by the adults and all the children shook our hands. It was a wonderful feeling of being wanted, loved and welcomed into thier lives as people, not just military members. We all had a great time sharing parts of our lives, sharing a meal and watching football. There was no rushed feeling of having to leave shortly after the meal and a little football. It was quite the opposite. A few of us became tired and were directed to bedrooms for a nap. We were extremely grateful for these instructors and thier families for all they had done to make is feel a part of them for the holiday. They both went well above and beyond for us.

Humanitarian Hurricane Hugo DC National Guard and the 82 Airborne MP
Helping those in need InaPorterico. and The Virginian Isl and of the USA

The year was 1969 in the jungles of Vietnam. Thanksgiving day for us grunts was looking for the enemy as we usually did during our search and destroy missions. We took a break for a quick lunch.
We opened our C-rations but before we ate, we prayed in silence. I prayed that we would all get back to the fire base uninjured and to go the rest of the day without contact. It turned out to be a quiet day even though we didn’t enjoy turkey like the men in the fire base did.

Thanksgiving that I remember the most was: My husband and I were both in the military. I was off but he was not. He worked at a isolated radio site in Germany. I was allowed to go to work with him and cook a meal for us and the other person he was working with. The only stove there was, was in an unheated Quonset hut. So I huddled in front of the stove and cooked. We had SPAM with brown sugar and mustard over it. Corn, instant mashed potatoes and cherry pie. Best food I ever had for thanksgiving.

Grenada, 1983. Gen Lutz of 1st SOCOM paid us a visit. We had one hell of a spread

While serving in the Korean War how the cooks tried to keep the food hot for the 7th Motor Transport Battalion of the Marines but at 22 below zero that was impossible they ate out of metal mess kits it would start to freeze around the edges before they could get it all ate. The water came in 250 gallon tanks on wheels it was a 250 gallon ice cube it took the cooks a few hours with a large steel bar breaking it up so as to make coffee, they brought a 32 gallon GI can to a boil then dumped several pounds of coffee into the water the longer it simmered the stronger it got. Sgt. Street

1980 on the USS John F Kennedy. What a feed they put on. I am glad I did not work in the kitchen. What a line to get food. Afterwards I went to chapel to thank God for the great food. I was attached to VA 46 , senior squadron., personnel ofc.

My first deployment was to a little FOB south of Baghdad, and we arrive via Blackhawk on Thanksgiving Day 2006. The first thing we did was go to the DFAC (after storing my gear), and it was mega-decked out with Thanksgiving decorations, cakes, food everywhere, etc, and I thought every day at the DFAC would be like that (I didn't know). We got hit that day shortly afterwards. I will always remember that day, and told someone about it today (Thanksgiving Day 2019).