Posted on 11/28/2003 7:23:56 AM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - President Bush didn't drop in, but a few other things made it a memorable Thanksgiving for the Stryker brigade.
The caterers put out a tremendous spread - real turkey (not the pressed kind) with all the trimmings.
Miss America spent an hour pouring gravy for soldiers on the serving line.
And every soldier in the brigade - as well as all the other troops who live and work at the camp - had their living areas searched as commanders sought the culprit responsible for an overnight break-in at the post exchange.
But mostly, it was another round of work as the brigade continued to prepare for its move north into Iraq.
,p>"It's just another day," said Maj. Mike Kasales, the brigade plans and operations officer, who deployed to the Balkans on Christmas Eve 1995. "The holidays when you're deployed just don't seem like the holidays."
Lt. Sean Finnerty, executive officer of the brigade headquarters company, worked through the festivities and dined on an MRE of roast turkey and mashed potatoes instead.
He missed a heck of a meal.
Darshan Ambat, manager of the Camp Udairi dining facility, said his staff of 84 cooks and servers worked until 2:30 a.m. Thursday and were back at it at 6:30 a.m. to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for 6,500.
They served up more than 3,500 pounds of turkey, said Ambat, who works for the Saudi firm that has an Army contract to run dining facilities - they're called "deefacks" - at a half-dozen camps in Kuwait and another 22 in Iraq.
"We want to provide a home away from home for the soldiers." Ambat said.
"It's human nature, people complain. And certain complaints we can do something about, and make changes and improvements. But others we can do nothing about. We cannot provide Mama's food. It's a bulk operation. It's not the same as providing for a family of four."
There were few complaints about Thursday's feast, though.
Ambat's crew served roast turkey and steaks, ham, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin, apple and pecan pies, and sparkling grape juice in plastic champagne flutes.
They decorated the place in a nice brown and orange Thanksgiving motif, with two huge tables decorated with hundreds of carefully arranged oranges, grapes, strawberries, apples (from Washington, of course), bananas and melons.
One arrangement featured a 4-foot ice sculpture of the Indian head that's the symbol on the Stryker brigade's 2nd Infantry Division shoulder patch - a touch that impressed the brigade's Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Du.
Many of the soldiers were impressed with Miss America, Ericka Dunlap, a 21-year-old Central Florida University journalism major from Orlando.
Dressed in tan bell-bottom slacks with high heels and a tight turtleneck sweater - over which she wore a desert camouflage blouse with Army V Corps and Special Forces patches on the right shoulder - Dunlap cheerfully helped serve the holiday meal for troops who waited 30 to 45 minutes in line. Later she clambered atop a Stryker armored vehicle and chatted with a squad from the brigade's 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment.
Her traveling contingent of news and publicity photographers, as well as Army public affairs teams, created a paparazzilike whirl around the beauty queen.
"She's doing great things for the country," said Spc. Lenin Bobadilla, a Stryker soldier from Brooklyn, N.Y., who went back for seconds so he and his buddies, Spc. Jeffrey Brown of Santa Ana, Calif., and Sgt. Jose Mendoza of Queens, N.Y., could take each other's picture near her.
"It kind of like eases the hardship of being here for the holidays," Mendoza added.
Other soldiers said the fine meal and the hoopla made them miss home all the more, but the consensus seemed to be that it was a good deal.
"It's a great morale booster," said Capt. John Pratt of the 44th Corps Support Battalion, a Fort Lewis unit sent along to work with the Stryker brigade. "I've been looking at the posters all week, and I was definitely looking forward to it."
The day was marred by the break-in overnight at the PX and the reported theft of thousands of dollars worth of electronic equipment as well as cash.
Authorities locked down the post - nobody allowed in, nobody out - after the burglary was discovered. Soldiers who'd planned to head out to the Udairi ranges for weapons training found themselves waiting at the gate for a couple of hours.
About 7,000 soldiers live at Udairi, including about 5,000 from the Stryker brigade, though they're here temporarily. There also are local and U.S. civilian contractors.
Brigade commander Col. Mike Rounds ordered a search of all their belongings, as did the commander of the other troops working here. There was no word late Thursday whether the stolen items had been found.
At a time when the brigade is setting new standards for the way units will arrive in Kuwait and prepare for their movement north, it's embarrassing and annoying to have to deal with issues like the theft, even if it turns out one of his guys wasn't responsible, Rounds said.
"These things are not consistent with how we do business," he said. "We've got to get it together."
But it wasn't all hard stuff for the boss on Thursday. He got to meet Miss America and present her with a ceremonial Stryker brigade coin. Dunlap showed him her ceremonial tiara.
And then there was the chow - and praise for the cooks.
"They go out of their way to accommodate the soldiers. They make sure everything's perfect," said Sgt. 1st Class Baldemar Guerrero, an Army Reservist from Texas who is a food service specialist at Camp Udairi. "They don't just slop it out to the soldiers."
Michael Gilbert: mjgilbert41@yahoo.com
WITH THE STRYKERS IN KUWAIT: Staff writer Michael Gilbert is an embedded journalist with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the Army's first Stryker brigade.
(Published 12:01AM, November 28th, 2003)
Uhm....
Miss America 2003 Erika Harold -- HOMETOWN - Urbana, IL AGE - 23 EDUCATION Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Illinois 3-time member of the National Dean's List Accepted to Harvard Law School
Why does this make me feel uneasy?
Egads. She did pose on the hood.
5000 guys with the green apple quickstep is definitely a bio-hazard.
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Stay Safe !
I too had my first application of carbs yesterday since September. Got dizzy on the mashed potatos and a slice of pie ....and as you gained 5 pounds no doubt !
Go get ya some stuff called "airborne" at the local pharmacy. Kinda like an alka seltzer on steriods. It'll kick that cold ASAP !!
Stay Safe Bro....Hope your visit goes well.....!
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