The FReeper Foxhole - Happy Thanksgiving Everyone - November 24th, 2005

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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THANKSGIVING "OVER THERE"



World War Two Voices from the Front

Bill Sykes of Plymouth, Combat Engineers and then 1095th Engineer Utility Company, Command SoPac, US Army Engineers 1942-1945 :
"My first Thanksgiving, that was kind of a sad thing for me, being away from home and being young and not being with my family for Thanksgiving, missing the football games.   And having no Thanksgiving -- we had no Thanksgiving.  They attempted to do it in a field kitchen, but what can you do in a field kitchen?  After that first Thanksgiving, though, they put on some beautiful meals.  They had everything you could think of for Thanksgiving dinner.  They really made a big effort to do it the proper way.  We would find out who had the best dinner.  And the Navy had the best dinner, I'll tell you right now.  The Navy had really good Thanksgivings.   They had the ships, you know.  And they'd bring in all kinds of food.   But the Army did pretty good, too. 
"The Thanksgiving dinners were served on trays.  (My first one, with the Combat Engineers, was served in mess kits.  That doesn't work too well.)  They had cranberry sauce, stuffing, the whole thing.  It was a good meal.  But the feeling of Thanksgiving wasn't there.  The meal was there, but the feeling of Thanksgiving wasn't.  I guess you couldn't have Thanksgiving when you were overseas.   There wasn't much to be thankful for.  It was sad.  Although, I guess there was some thankfulness, at least you were still alive!"

Cliff Sampson of Plymouth, US Navy 1942-1945 :
"My first military Thanksgiving was in 1942 at Great Lakes.  We had a big mess hall and it was a typical Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and all the fixings, apple pie and mince pie.  They tried to make it special and, of course, everybody was hepped on the war.  Just being a little recruit, you didn't have much to say about it anyhow, you just did what they told you and ate what they gave you.  But it was good food, I can't complain.  Some of the food probably was better than a lot of people ever had before they were in the service.  Some people came from poverty...
"Thanksgiving 1945 I was home in Plymouth with my family and my wife.  We were getting ready to settle down and I was back to work, running the store again.  It was a great feeling to be home, after being blown up on a ship in July (the USS YMS 84 yard mind sweeper was blown up 3 July 1945, Cliff Sampson received the Purple Heart) and then in November, I'm out of the service and the war is over.  I feel sorry for all those that didn't come back.  It was a great experience, but it's too bad for those who had to leave us.  They fought for a great cause."

Bill Shepard of Plymouth, 102 Infantry Division ("Ozark Division"), U.S. Army, stationed in Ohio, Germany and Wales :

Thanksgiving Dinner Two Ozark infantrymen, Pfc William G. Curtis from San Diego, California, and Pfc Donald R. Stratton from Colville, Washington, enjoy a hasty meal in the battered window of a shell-torn house far, far from home. 23 November 1944. Waurichen, Germany.

"The Armed Forces were absolutely adamant about getting the troops a Thanksgiving dinner, all over the world, no matter who you were or what you were doing.  Whether it was on the front lines or in a big fort like Sam Houston in San Antonio, they always made sure that the Armed Forces got a Thanksgiving dinner.  Christmas meals were also somewhat like that, but I remember the Thanksgiving dinners -- there were always turkeys and pies and everything you would have at home.  The food was often cold, if you were in the field (Thanksgiving Day 1944, the Ozark Division had just broken through the Siegfried Line at Aachen), but it was Thanksgiving."

Stanley Collins, US Navy :
"I was on submarine duty in the Pacific in the year 1943.  We were in the area off the cost of the Philippines.  I remember having a complete turkey dinner on Thanksgiving.  While the turkeys were cooking, the submarine took a dive.  We went down too steeply and the turkeys fell out of the oven onto the deck.  The cook picked them up and put them back into the oven -- and we ate them, regardless of what may have gotten on them as a result of their fall.  That meal was so good!"

Ervin Schroeder, 77th Infantry Division, 3rd Battalion, I Company, US Army :
"On Thanksgiving Day, we made our landing on Leyte Island in the Philippines very early in the morning.  We therefore missed our dinner aboard ship.  Somewhere down the beach from where we landed, the Navy sent us ham and cheese sandwiches.  My buddy happened to get one of the sandwiches and brought it back to our area.  I was complaining to him for not bringing one back for me when he started to have stomach cramps...  At this point, I shook his hand and thanked him for not bringing me a sandwich."

Ed Campbell, US Marine Corps, 1943-1945 :
"There were 3 Thanksgivings.  Actually, the one in '43 I don't really remember -- we may have been in California but it was just about the time we were getting ready to leave for the invasion of the Marshalls.  I think we spent it like we spent all our weekends -- every weekend we would all get liberty and head for Los Angeles.  That Thanksgiving just draws a blank.
"The second one, I was on Maui and I do remember.  It was an odd day.  You remember all of your early Thanksgivings with the family and a certain feeling of nostalgia sets in.  Then you take your mess kit, which is like an oval opened up, and go down to the mess hall and get your Thanksgiving dinner thrown into the mess kit.   It ends up with the turkey and carrots all mixed.  The cooks do a great job of trying to make it a festive meal but when you mix it all together with the gravy in the mess kit, its sort of like mush.  I do remember that.  Other than that, there was no celebration.  There wasn't too much discussion, we just all sort of hunkered into ourselves and thought of earlier days and days to come, hopefully.
"The third and last Thanksgiving (1945), I landed in Boston on Thanksgiving Day...  I walked around the city for a little bit, with joy in being immersed in the quietness of Boston -- it was around 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning.  I decided I would take a taxi home to Quincy.  I had enough money -- my discharge money -- so I was able to pay for a cab to take me home in style.  Of course, we had a great Thanksgiving.  My mother had all the relatives and old friends there -- I had called her to say that I would be home on Thanksgiving.  It was a wonderful day to come home.  It was literally the first day of the rest of my life."

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[snippy_about_it]

MILITARY COOKING 1941



TURKEY, ROAST

70 pounds turkey, undrawn or 50 pounds dressed and drawn
4 pounds onions, minced, browned
2 pounds fat, butter preferred
15 pounds bread crumbs
2 pounds flour

Singe, then clean the turkey well, saving heart, liver, and gizzard, which should be cooked and then minced for use in gravy or dressing. To make the dressing, moisten the bread crumbs with water, mix with onions and giblets, and season with pepper and salt, sage, thyme, or other spices. The bread may be soaked in oyster liquor and oysters added to the dressing. Celery, currants, or raising may be used instead of onions. Lemon juice or nuts may be added. Stuff the turkey well with dressing. Sew up with strong thread and tie wings down to the body. Make a batter with the flour and fat, season with salt and pepper and rub the turkey with it before placing in oven. Roast in a slow own (200-250 F. -- 18 to 20 counts). After the turkey has been in the oven about 20 minutes, add a little hot water and baste every 15 minutes until done. This generally requires about 2 1/2 hours, depending upon the quality of the fowl. Last few minutes of cooking should be at high heat to brown the outside of the turkey. Carve and serve hot with gravy.

From : Manual of Mess Management,
Military Service Publishing Co., 1941.

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Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:

www.pilgrimhall.org/thot-ww2.htm

[MJY1288]

Thank You, and Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours

[snippy_about_it]

"FALL IN" to the FReeper Foxhole!



Good Thursday Morning Everyone.

If you want to be added to our occasional ping list, let us know.

[snippy_about_it]

You're welcome. Love your speed boat pics. As a child, many moons ago, we used to watch the speed boats race in Ohio. Cool.

[MJY1288]

Where at in Ohio... Dayton?

[U S Army EOD]

Happy Turkey day with all the dressing and fixens.

[MeekMom]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[Neil E. Wright]

Hiya Kida,

Our country has so many things to be thankful for this year.
Our military is SECOND TO NONE!!!!! (Thank you TROOPS!)
We're WINNING in Iraq!!!!
The economy is BOOMING!!!
The democRATS are LOSING!!
FORMER senator DASSHOLE is deeply SADDENED!

Ah, yes! So much to be thankful for ..... :)

Have a GREAT Thanksgiving, kids, and a safe holiday!

±

"The Era of Osama lasted about an hour, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty."
Toward FREEDOM

[snippy_about_it]

No, Columbus. They used to race them on the Olentangy and Scioto rivers.

[MJY1288]

OK, I raced a 1/4 mile Drag Boat back in the 1990's, an d if my memory serves me correctly, we called the Ohio race the "Punch Bowl"

I haven't raced since 1998, but from 1989 thru 1998 I traveled the country racing at every event I could possibly make. In 1992 I was world champion in my class in the USDBA (United States Drag Boat Asso) and a 4 time High Points Champ in the DVBRC on the east coast from 1990 thru 1994

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies and gents. Flag-o-Gram.

[Professional Engineer]

Say, that'd be a spiffy rig for camping!.

[Iris7]

"Roast in a slow own (200-250 F. -- 18 to 20 counts)."

I remember being told that before I was born and before oven thermometers existed the cook would get the wood burning right, coals correct, and then test the oven temperature by opening the oven door and sticking in their hand while counting up how long they could leave there hand in there. These weren't seconds because people didn't use seconds until accurate clocks were readily available. A "slow" oven was the temperature when you pulled your hand out slow, and a "fast" oven was when you had to pull your hand out fast.

The same technique is used today to check heavy machinery temperatures though we use seconds nowadays. Four seconds is about 115 degrees Fahrenheit. At 140 degrees you can press your finger for about a half second. I mean, you don't burn yourself or anything like that. The sensation changes from "warm" to "hot" and you take your hand off.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Especially to our people on the sharp end.

[Johnny Gage]

Happy
Thanksgiving
Everyone

 

Time Out: 03:53
KMG-365

[E.G.C.]

Happy Thanksgiving from EGC of Southwest Oklahoma.

[Caipirabob]

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I want to say thank you to each of you out there reading FR today!

It's so great to wake up each day and read your thoughts on things happening in the world. The thoughtfulness and intellect of my fellow FReepers has carried me through the past 5 years in dealing with the Leftist infection that infests our great nation. Y'all help reinforce the strength I get from my family to for forth and debate important issues with the lefties I have to deal with every day.

And more and more those debates end with a hushed retreat on their part. Heck, I've gotten so much ammo from FReepers for my Chavez debates alone in the post two months that the folks I discuss this with usually end up not being able to make eye contact by the end of the discussion. You've helped me SHAME the left, and that is no small feat!

Anyway, that's one small example for my gratitude to FReepers. JimRob and JohnRob and their clan have done a great thing for our nation in establishing this forum. I won't even go into the theraputic aspects of FR, suffice to say that it's a virtual home for me.

Yeah, sure I mouth off too much, get my avatar involved in one too many flame wars and stuff. Yet I'm always up for a late evening Troll-B-Q with a few thousand of my fellow FReepers. Yes, FR is a treasure to me, as are all of you.

So here's to wishing all of you a wonderful, family filled, joyous Thanksgiving. All the best to you and yours! Cheers, Salud, Saude...how ever you want to say it!

The Caipira

[Humal]

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

[texianyankee]

Good Thursday morning to everyone from Texas.
Happy Thanksgiving to one & all.
Thanks to all our vets & all our active duty military across this globe.

[GailA]

Good morning every one, I pray God's blessing fall on every one here, our Troops, GW and our country.

[alfa6]

Thanksgiving Day greetings to all and one from the night shift,only one more nite to go :-)

Regards

alfa6 ;>}