hAppy thAnksgiving

Thanksgiving Day, 1968, Central Highlands, Vietnam. It was my second Thanksgiving away from home. (the first had been in Basic Training) The day started out like any other, except my assignment that day was to haul hot thanksgiving dinners to the grunts and artillery units in the field. Uncle Sam did it's best to get hot chow to these guys who normally lived daily, eating C-rations - now MRE's. (C-rats were actually pretty good and had some variety, of which my favorite were beans and franks and cheese and crackers) That day I remember coming back to our base late at night after flying all day. (I'm sure we had normal resupply flights as well as the hot foods) The mess sergeant had saved dinner for us guys in the flight platoon, we ate a nice dinner after all, just later than normal. The picture below is a pretty good example of what I flew into on a daily basis, to include Thanksgiving Day 41 years ago. Funny, it doesn't seem that long ago.

So now with all the hoopla about this day, at least one of the things I'm thankful for is that I made it home alive and well for family dinners and trying to live the normal American dream as it pertains to this over-rated holiday. I've had a lot of Thanksgiving dinners since then, some better than others, some to accommodate my working shift...it's not always about the food.

Enjoy everyone!!!