Any Vets Wanna Share a Thanksgiving Story?

Free Republic ^ | Nov. 22, 2001 | IronJack

[IronJack]

Im not in the services. Or even American for that matter. Just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving America.

Well, thank you for that sentiment. And, wherever you are, Happy Day of Thanks to you and yours.

[d4now]

Thanks klee. Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

[cibco]

T Day 68 ... VN Jungle: We stopped by a clearing in mid-day. A bird flew in the meal in containers. It was a very welcome break.

After the bird returned and picked up the empty containers, we saddled up and continued walking. Just another day... but the food was great!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Time to go make some deer jerky... ;0)

[VOA]

bump

[IronJack]

Time to go make some deer jerky...

You gotta share ...

[lodwick]

Great thread - thanks much for putting it up, and please keep'em coming. JL

[JoeSixPack1]

A cherokee Indian, A tall texan, A kid from Chicago, A Georgia Bulldog & me (A kid from Queens, NYC),

1973(or 74?), Turkeyday eve, we all jumped into my 1969 mustang and drove to my families home from Camp Lejeune, NC. Mom had chestnut stuffing cooked inside a 28lb bird and all the trimmings.
We ate, we sang, we drank beer, Dad got to tell all his WWII 82nd Airborne stories to a bunch of Vietnam Marines.
We ate pumpkin pie and chased it with JD.

That night we all went to a pub on Long Island (My old hangout), got pretty toasted, got into a huge knock down drag out with the locals, got phone #'s from a bunch of babes, spent the night in the Nassau County Jail.

Got back to base Sunday evening, got "grounds keeper" duty for 2 weeks for having the Captain of the local Marine Reserve Unit on L.I. get us out of jail and get all charges dropped.

All-in-All a great Thanksgiving weekend!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Semper Fi

[1John]

Obviously as perfect a Thanksgiving as ever there was......

[d4now]

But now you're on your best behavior, right?

[klee]

New Zealand here. And thanks! We'll have a good one.

[Norb2569]

I was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni, Japan from 1973 thru 1977, but I think this Thanksgiving day was in, let's see... I think it was 1974.

I was recently assigned as the NCOIC of the Visting Aircraft Line. Our function was to accomodate all visiting aircraft with fuel and parking and any other of their needs. It was not a fun job. Most times were boring, but the one event that took priority over all others was the weekly arrival and departure of the 'Freedom Bird', a chartered Flying Tiger airliner that would carry home to the states those who had completed their overseas tours. Most Marines had 'short-timers' calendars that carefully counted down the remaining days till their 'Freedom Bird' would come.

Anyhow, the Freedom Bird always came on Thursday, arriving in the morning to bring the newbies, then down to Okinawa, then it returned on it's way back stateside in the afternoon.

Even though Thanksgiving was Thursday, NOTHING, repeat NOTHING, stopped the Freedom Bird. It was the job of the VAL to ensure the Freedom Bird was handled without a hitch, and futher it was my job as NCOIC to greet and park the Freedom Bird.

Since I was single and had recently broke up with my local girlfriend, (OK, she threw me out), and all my troops were either married or were still in good standing with their girlfiends, I told them to enjoy the Thanksgiving day holiday and I would handle the Freedom Bird by myself, with the assistance of a couple guys from crash crew to put the chocks down and pull 'em out when it was time to go. All I had to do was drive the 'Follow Me' truck escort the FB back, park it, greet the captain, and then start him up when he was loaded and send him off, no fuel required as he would get gas at Yokota before he arrived in Iwakuni. I had done this twice before so it wouldn't be a problem, just a pain in the ass to stand out in the rain and park it.

As the FB taxied I noticed something laying on the outbound taxiway, it was moving. After I parked the FB and saw it was chocked, I headed out to the taxiway to investigate what it was I saw laying there. To my dismay, it was a large hawk that must have flown into the side of a crash crew truck or something. It was still alive but needed to be put down and be removed, so as to not pose a hazard to aircraft (F.O.D.). I called the tower and crash crew came out to help put this feathered fellow out of his misery and remove his carcass from the taxiway. This was ugly, and the cold, driving rain didn't make it any easier.

Anyway, I had forgotten to greet the captain, and it was time for the FB to leave. I hurried up the gangway and briefed the captain on what occured. He said thanks and as I was leaving the stewardess handed me a white paper bag. I scurried down the gangway, threw the bag in the 'follow me' truck, pulled the gangway away from the plane, then started him up and sent him off.

I was ravenously hungry, but I had missed the galley's holiday brunch, and by the time dinner was to be served the FB would be returning and I would have to be there again.

I was drenched and cold, feeling homesick and like crap for being alone and hungry on Thanksgiving. I pulled up my chair next to the oil burning stove and just sat there trying to warm up, feeling sorry for myself. After about an hour passed and I had dried, decided to get in truck and check the line. When I got into the truck I smelled something I hadn't smelled in a LONG TIME. I opened the white paper bag the stewardess had handed me, and what was inside - 4 BIG MACS and 4 french fries!!

Whoo-hoo I was grinning from ear to ear!! Where in the heck did they get these?? Oh well, I inhaled a Big Mac and a bag of fries - something I hadn't tasted for at least 3 years when I left the states. Man, it was goooooood!

I drove over to crash crew and got the Marines who had helped me with the chocks and removing the hawk, there were 3 of them, and brought them out to the 'follow me' truck. I told them to get in. As soon as they got in the truck they could smell the food and as I pulled the bag out from under the seat, their eyes got as big as pumpkin pies and their lips were smackin'. They devoured the good ole American junk food in about 45 seconds!

When the FB arrived later that afternoon from Okinawa, I thanked the stewardess and asked her where those Big Macs came from. She said she had bought them from the McDonald's just outside the gate from Yokota AFB, and put them in the plane's oven to keep 'em hot. That was her Thanksgiving gift for us!

I will never forget that Thanksgiving Day, when junk food was much better than turkey and trimmings!

Happy Thanksgiving to all the vets here at FReeRepublic, and thank you for your service to our country!

Semper Fi,
Norb in Jacksonville

[1John]

Isn't there something called "boxing day" that's celebrated around this time of year?

[Ax]

I just counted up my overseas Thanksgivings: twenty six Thanksgiving meals on foreign shores, from Clark Air Base in the Philippines, through Jeddah, England, Rome, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and the last four in Havana.

Among the most memorable was 1988, when were stationed at the U S Embassy in Buenos Aires. As usual in the Embassy communities, the members of the Marine Security Guard Detachments are favorite members of the Embassy family. We were fortunate and had some fairly sumptuous quarters, complete with swimming pool (flame away). My wife and a secretary from across the hall volunteered to cook an old fashioned Thanksgiving dinner for the Detachment. Gunny brought the Marines over in the Detachment van and they proceeded to do a job on the four turkeys that we'd prepared. We sent a tray back for the Marines standing watch in the Embassy. A fine as bunch of young men as can be found anywhere. And it's usually hot in BA on our Thanksgiving, and our quarters weren't air conditioned. Boo Hoo.

[Norb2569]

My favorite Thanksgiving in the Marines was spent eating an Sake Basted Turkey with Rice stuffing in Iwakuni with Mamasan Hamamoto. (The resident MAG-11 ham/cheese sandwich and Soda shop lady) I miss her. Happy Thanksgiving Mamasan - whereever you are. You cheered many Marines

I think she was the MAG-12 Mama-san, wasn't she?

MAG-12 was in Iwakuni and I remember many, many times there in the old barracks, Block 8. Did you ever live there?

Semper Fi,
Norb

[blam]

On this day in 1963 I was in the Bay of Florida recovering a U2 spy plane that was shot down by Cuba. It was also anoounced over the communication speakers that JFK had been assassinated. Very tenseful times. It was/is also my birthday.

[blam]

"I was a UH 1B (helicopter) crew chief with the 1st Air Cavalry at Pleiku (Central Highlands, N. Vietnam), Thanksgiving '65. It was about two weeks after the Battle of Ia Drang, the first major military encounter with the NVA, in which we lost 234 US troops."

Thank you.

[IronJack]

Cool story! I knew some of these would surface. I just love this kind of stuff. It's a great restorative at a time when you think nobody gives a damn about anybody but themselves. I guess that's one reason I admire our veterans so much. Talk about selfless acts ...

[Norb2569]

Happy Birthday Blam!!

Thank you for your service to our country, too!
Norb in Jacksonville

[Norb2569]

Thank you for your service to our nation at a very dark time!

Guys like you give us a reason to be thankful!

Norb in Jacksonville

[jo6pac]

MAG-12 was in Iwakuni and I remember many, many times there in the old barracks, Block 8. Did you ever live there?

Block 8

My brother was stationed at Iwakuni and I had the opportunity to visit him. Landed and left the terminal, following his instructions to go to his billet - Block 8.

Hailed a cab at the font of the terminal, got in and told the driver, "Block 8, please."

Driver looked at me with a befuddled expression. "Block 8", I repeated. Still the befuddled look.

Once more, "Block 8!"

Thought to myself - How the hell can these cabbies make a living here when they can't even understand a basic English direction?

Then, in what I perceived was an long overdue comprehension of the English language, the driver smiled and said, "OK!"

He then shifted into gear, made a U-turn, and parked in front of a building across the street 30 or so yards away next to a huge, unmissable sign with the words BLOCK 8.

We both laughed and the driver left with a nice tip.