By Edward Lee Pitts Military Affairs
CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait — Despite the persistent rumors here all week, both President Bush and the Washington Redskin cheerleaders failed to show up for Thanksgiving dinner.
But one wish did come true for the nearly 4,000 soldiers of the Tennessee-based 278 th Regimental Combat Team preparing here for a yearlong mission in Iraq. Food, glorious food.
"This is the best dinner I have ever had in a foreign country," said Spc. Oliver Fraenkel, 26, of Johnson City, Tenn. "I’m going to eat as much as I can while I’m here."
Just the meats the soldiers feasted on included roast turkey, Cornish hens, rib roasts and baked ham with cherry sauce. The troops also struggled to find room on their plates for the generous helpings of green beans, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes and cornbread.
"It is funny, you always watch this on TV, and now you are living it," said Master Sgt. Chris Williams, stationed here with the 42 nd Infantry Division.
Mess hall officials said they served about 7,000 soldiers during the four hours the chow hall stayed open for the holiday meal. Lines began to form outside the dining facility at 10 a.m., a full hour before the doors opened.
By noon, an hour into the meal, the mess hall already had served 1,000 hungry soldiers.
Spc. Ken Milsap, 49, of Athens, Tenn., said he waited an hour in line to eat the turkey and all its fixings.
"I think people kept coming back two to three times each because the line kept getting longer," he said.
Officers, including Brig. Gen. Kevin Leonard, commandeered the serving lines from the usual federal contract cafeteria workers and poured from cases of sparkling apple juice and handed out huge slices from an oversized American flag cake.
"You guys want some cake? It’s a ‘hooah’ cake!" hollered Gen. Leonard, the logistics officer for all U.S. forces in Southwest Asia, referring to the popular Army saying for yes. "It is a low-calorie cake. I promise you won’t have to do any extra PT." Sgt. 1 st Class Walter Brown, in charge of the camp’s mess hall, said he ordered 2,400 pounds of shrimp, 1,120 pounds of ribs and 2,600 pounds of turkey for the dinner.
The kitchen staff started preparing the meal at about midnight — eleven hours before feeding the first soldier.
Carved pumpkins in the shapes of turkeys and flower bouquets and ice sculptures in the form of holiday bows and a turkey decorated the mess hall. While the commander in chief and pompom-waving beauties failed to materialize Thursday, a Santa Claus with an authentic white beard and real padding across the middle did make an appearance among the troops in the mess hall. The soldiers lined up for pictures with Santa throughout the meal.
An even better gift occurred when a company set up free phone lines for the weekend inside a trailer next to the kitchen. With the Internet and phone lines on the base experiencing technical difficulties, soldiers flocked to the trailer to make contact with loved ones.
However, the day was not just about food and games for many soldiers with the 278 th. Several wolfed down their food in just minutes to make mandatory training classes on the rules for engaging the enemy in Iraq.
The 278 th is scheduled to convoy into the country sometime during the next month.
Others in the 278 th spent the day firing their weapons at the rifle range or working on their vehicles in the motor pool. Artillery explosions ripped through the air during the late afternoon. Some responsibilities forced soldiers to miss the meal altogether.
"The line was too long, and I couldn’t wait," said Spc. Frankie Rush, 37, a mechanic from Knoxville. "So my Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a Subway sandwich."
Sgt. Chris Milligan, a chaplain’s assistant from Athens, Tenn., chose to have a hamburger at the base’s trailer-sized Burger King instead of the holiday grub.
"If I can’t eat Turkey with my family, I’m not eating it," he said. Despite the work, the spirit of Thanksgiving started early for the 278 th. Plumbing problems forced many in the 278 th to take a cold shower, but one soldier in the latrines yelled amid the complaints that he was just "thankful to have running water." Other soldiers had more reason to be thankful when officials announced that the Washington Redskin cheerleaders would indeed visit the camp for a performance on Friday. Still, a few 278 th soldiers said they would gladly miss the cheerleaders for a sight of the true meaning of the holiday — home.
"I probably won’t even go because my wife is not one of them," said Sgt. Danny Kilgore, 26, of Chattanooga.
E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com
Story Copyright to Chattanooga Times Free press
Staff Photo by Edward Lee Pitts Brig. Gen. Kevin Leonard tries to get Sgt. John Morrow of the 1 st/178 th Field Artillery to eat some of a Thanksgiving Day cake during a holiday meal at Camp Buehring, Kuwait.