About 2 in the afternoon we got a call from our topside security that we had visitors approaching the gate. As teamchief, it was my responsibility to check out the visitors. As the vehicle neared, I saw it was the DCM (Deputy Commander for Maintenance) a full bull colonel. I thought "Great, what we really need right now is a social call".
This guy brought out his wife and kids and a complete homemade hot turkey meal for us. He also arranged to have us relieved in time to spend some of Thanksgiving with our families.
That is how to command!
I don't know how they pulled it off, but the traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners they arranged weren't better than not bad. They were FANTASTIC! I think in every case I went back for thirds.
I never had to work on the mess deck and felt it was likely a thankless task. I remember there was a Petty Officer 1st Class who ran the galley. I remember everyone who worked there, even the mess cooks assigned from the divisions (I was never so assigned) thought he was the best guy on the ship for whom to work. It had something to do with his work ethic: Here we work hard, and we play hard. He apparently insisted of a days work for a day's pay. He also insisted on feeding the crew with minimal use of man-hours and on liberal use of liberty. I loved it that I was never assigned as a mess cook. In retrospect I found it interesting that radiomen and radarmen who worked near me (I was a sonar tech) came back after a their assignments as mess cooks, disappointed that their assignments had ended.
Nevertheless, this 1st Cass Petty Officer was responsible for 100% of the menu for the crew. He apparently thought Thanksgiving and Christmas were important days for the crew and planned accordingly. Great Caesar's Ghost, he earned his pay on those days!
I spent two Thanksgiving Days in Viet Nam aboard a 338-foot Army ship, the USAV Page. Our chow was always good, but imagine the surprise of the enlisted crew when our ship’s officers showed up wearing their going home khakis. As each man made his choices, an officer would order him to take a seat and the officer would deliver his tray. This nineteen year old kid was impressed!
Black and White were both from Loozyanna, and they cooked the oinker -- a little smaller than a Volkswagen -- in a pit lined with glowing coals for what seemed like days. When Thanksgiving day came, we had an old-fashioned Cajun pig-pull that I hold dear in my memory to this day. And if I had the recipe for Sp5 White's secret sauce, I would be a billionaire.
I wonder what Nguyen did with all those turkeys?