What is your favorite or worst Thanksgiving memory while in the military?

Thanksgiving 2008 in Afghanistan was very memorable. The Brigade Commander directed Each soldier would be provided a hot Turkey dinner regardless of where they were or what their COP, FOB, or patrol base was capable of providing. Every Outpost was pushed the appropriate supplies/equipment and confirmed receipt except one in Khost province. An austere platoon outpost with little organic food service capability. The day before, we LCLA dropped new platoon sized group rations with internal heaters with all the supporting equipment etc into their COP's HLZ.

One of my favorite memories is a Thanksgiving in Germany. Our small (5-6 person) office had a mannequin - I have no idea where it came from or how long it had been there - dressed as a German police officer. We called him Fritz. The NCOIC of the office and his wife invited everyone over to their quarters for Thanksgiving, and when we arrived, there was Fritz with a sign around his neck that said "Happy Thanksgiving"! That's a fond memory.

I never had a worst memory, my best memory was being on maneuvers for 5000 years with no trips back to the rear ( amazing how time can pass so slowly isnt it??) our Commander called a muster formation, told us we had a road march that day (yes this is my favorite memory) and all would participate,went on to say that he had organized another unit to guard our positions while EVERYONE ( did he say everyone????) went.We were all frothing at the mouth at this notion, here it is dead of winter, all miserable and this joker wants to make life more miserable !!!! so anyways... we got in formation, some were ran into formation against their will, and we headed of to the ole left right chants, went about 2 miles, stopped. The Commander was very impatient at this point and told us all to form a casual open ranks and ordered Hq Plt to lead the way through a patch of woods to a huge clearing with many GP larges in it, the smell was magnificent !!! Each PLt had its own tent, and it was teaming with family members he had trucked in along with a feast fit for a king...thats a memory I will never forget .I had no wife, but was with my family.

The yaear I had to pull KP.All others were good except Vietnam. We ate c rats then.

COB Basrah 2009. Thanksgiving dinner consisted of grilled chicken, mashed potatoes you had to cut with a knife, slimy green beans, a single non-alcoholic beer and some kind of white fruit that they said was an apple. COB got hit with IDF the night before and everything was on lock-down so no calls home were allowed.

I was at basic for Thanksgiving. The chow hall had a full blown Thanksgiving dinner. The DSs let us have dessert and extra phone calls home.

As much as I would miss my family while deployed, I really have no bad memories of holidays. All my holidays that I was away from my family, I was with my other family and I was breaking bread with my brothers and sisters in arms that I knew had and would always have my back. I do have fond memories of the base we were in Saudi Arabia. It was a Saudi base and the TCN's ran the chow hall. I was amazed with the feast they put on for us for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we did not expect it at all.

I spent Thanksgiving on Camp Warrior in Bagram. Hundreds of soldiers from several countries crammed into every available seat and a line 1/4 mile long to get in. Unbelievably packed, terribly lonely despite it.

Best - I spent Thanksgiving with a friend who was SOF. We did a lot of really cool stuff that I hadn't had the opportunity to experience before. It was my first year of being operational, so I was absolutely in awe because I hadn't seen or used any of the stuff yet!

It was November of 1966 and I was a recruit in basic training at Lackland AFB in Texas. We had a "white glove" inspection coming up the next day. My roomies were great at cleaning and I was great at ironing. So my Thanksgiving day was spent ironing all of our uniforms [took 8 hrs] while they cleaned. We had no gigs on our inspection!