Yesterday marked the passing of my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. It’s the holiday that always means the most to me. It’s the unofficial start of the holiday season. It’s a holiday with no strings attached. It involves family, food, and football. This was also my first real holiday away from my family. I’ve missed some other holidays over the years, a handful of July 4ths, and a couple of Labor Days and Memorial Days, but I have never missed Thanksgiving before.
Normally during Thanksgiving, I’ll take some time to reflect on everything that I’m thankful for, and this year was no exception. The only difference is that being away from everything made the reflection that much easier.
As for the actual holiday itself, it was not too bad of a day. We had a semi-light day yesterday and today. I basically worked 3/4 day yesterday and a half day today. It’s amazing how nice it is to get an afternoon to just relax after going non-stop for over two months.
Yesterday about 1pm we left as a team to go to the Thanksgiving meal. When we got to the chow hall a huge line for food greeted us. Usually a long line will put me in a sour mood, but yesterday it hardly phased me. The thirty some minutes that we spent in line went fairly fast as we laughed and joked with each other. Finally, after the long wait in line we entered the dining facility and went through the line.
The food that we had before us was all the traditional Thanksgiving Day staples, turkey, dressing, potatoes, corn, gravy, green beans, and pies. Everyone piled up their trays with heaping servings of their favorites.
As we sat down at a table together, we made a toast to each other, our safety, and our blessings. I told everyone that if I could not be with my family, there is no one I would rather share a Thanksgiving meal with. We ate, talked, and eventually as trays were pushed away and plastic forks laid down, some of us got up and did our little part in the Thanksgiving Day meal.
You see, one of the unwritten rules of Army life is that Officers and the senior enlisted personnel serve the food in the chow hall for holidays.
Our team’s group went to the kitchen where we washed our hands, put on aprons and gloves and entered the serving line. We had the last one-hour shift for the main meal, 2pm to 3pm. Everyone embraced their job and we served a constant stream of Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, and civilians their Thanksgiving meal.
Our group was loud and cheerful as we piled heaps of food onto plates. A videographer from AFN (Armed Forces Network) was there to record the meal and we soon became the center of attention. We laughed and joked with the service members as they came through line, managing to put some smiles on faces. I hope that we made some of them feel a little better 8,000 miles away from home.
After dinner was done I came back to my room and watched a movie. I did not eat dinner yesterday since the line was extremely long once again and instead ate a bunch of food that I had received in care packages.
In the evening, I spent quite a bit of time talking with family members on Skype. It was nice to see everyone, talk them, and let them know that I’m doing ok.
One final touch to top out a nice day yesterday, I received a care package from my parents and sister. In the box, they packed me a little Christmas tree with some decorations for it. It was a perfect surprise for Thanksgiving, and I was able to put my little tree up in my office yesterday.
I hope that everyone else had a great time with family yesterday. I know that next year, when I’m home and with everyone, the day will be extra special, but I’ll always remember my Thanksgiving in Afghanistan.
No comments:
Post a Comment