Two years ago this week I was at a military base in Iraq, looking forward to the dinner that was being served. In the military it’s sort of a rule that Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two days in which you’re guaranteed a good meal.:)
The dinner was being served at 11 a.m., during lunch hours. I got there 20 minutes prior, anticipating the rush of people who also were looking forward to one of the few days in which they are given the closest thing we would get to a home cooked meal. I was glad I made it early-five minutes later the place had a line going almost a mile long.
It’s also a tradition that your military leadership serves the food on the holidays. So behind the rows of food were officers and senior NCOs (Sergeants). Our base commander was the first up to serve the choice between ham and turkey.
I got myself some turkey, along with the usual stuff you’d get at Thanksgiving: Sweet potatoes, cornbread, green beans, mac and cheese, and of course, pumpkin pie.
I sat down and took my first bite.
I really don’t know how the cooks at KBR managed to make the turkey taste like tuna fish, but they did. And everything else-including the stuff they usually serve that on any other day wouldn’t be half bad-was some of the most disgusting crap I ever had to shovel into my mouth. It was worse than an MRE.
What was really sad about it is that the KBR ran kitchen usually served up some decent food (it better be decent-they’re charging the Army over $30 a plate), so it would’ve been better if they had just treated the meal like any other day.
In the end, the only thing I could finish was the pie. I’m just glad they didn’t make it from scratch.
And of course they served the leftovers for dinner.
My fiance and family notwithstanding, if I have anything to be thankful for, it’s that I’m not stuck in that craphole during the holidays. Some people have wondered how we could be grateful for things being sent to us in care packages like Ramen Noodles and Easy Mac. Trust me, if you ate what we ate that day you’d understand.
And you’d donate!
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
This is a Blogging For Michigan Troop Care post. From November 11 through November 25, 2007, Blogging For Michigan will use 100% of every dollar received in the Troop Care fund to purchase and ship items to Michigan troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Learn more about BFM Troop Care here. Click here to contribute to Troop Care. Contributions are not tax deductible.