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Happy Thanksgiving 2012!
To celebrate Thanksgiving, here is a video of our Thanksgiving at FOB Hammer in Iraq, November 2009. As part of the celebration, the officers served dinner to the enlisted men and women. I assisted– because I had a beard, I am the one wearing a facemask stretched over the lower part of my chin.
You could almost write a book based just on the history of Thanksgivings in our war in Iraq. Remember in 2003, flush with manly, victory-laced testosterone, George W. Bush secretly flew into Iraq to have turkey dinner with the troops? Then, during the boom years of occupation, no expense was spared to provide a full, all-the-trimmings Thanksgiving feast for our men and women in uniform, such as you can witness in the video above.
Meanwhile, as we ate out meal in 2009, in the freedom city of Basra on Thanksgiving Day, at least nine people were killed and 40 wounded when three bombs exploded in a market. Many of the casualties were police and soldiers who responded to the scene of the first blast, officials said. Hospital sources put the toll at nine dead and 40 wounded, while a police source said 11 people were killed and 42 wounded.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
Happy Thanksgiving!
To celebrate Thanksgiving, here is a video of our Thanksgiving at FOB Hammer in Iraq, November 2009. As part of the celebration, the officers served dinner to the enlisted men and women. I assisted– because I had a beard, I am the one wearing a facemask stretched over the lower part of my chin.
(In case the video is not embedded for you, follow this link)
You could almost write a book based just on the history of Thanksgivings in our war in Iraq. Remember in 2003, flush with manly, victory-laced testosterone, George W. Bush secretly flew into Iraq to have turkey dinner with the troops? Anybody expect Obama to drop by this year? Then, during the boom years of occupation, no expense was spared to provide a full, all-the-trimmings Thanksgiving feast for our men and women in uniform, such as you can witness in the video above.
Now, in 2011, many troops enjoyed MRE meatloaf, or frozen turkey parts in a stryofoam tray. Here at home, military families at bases outside of Washington DC lined up for charity turkeys because their food stamps would not stretch to pay for the traditional feast.
Meanwhile, in the freedom city of Basra on Thanksgiving Day, at least nine people were killed and 40 wounded when three bombs exploded on Thursday in a market in Iraq’s southern oil city of Basra, police and hospital sources said.
Many of the casualties were police and soldiers who responded to the scene of the first blast, officials said.
Hospital sources put the toll at nine dead and 40 wounded, while a police source said 11 people were killed and 42 wounded.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
Thanksgiving Dinner, FOB Hammer
A little lighter touch for a sunny Friday. Video from FOB Hammer, showing Thanksgiving dinner served to the troops. The leadership at Hammer arranged for the officers (and me, at 00:23 in) to serve the enlisted men and women of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. In between the politics and sad stories of waste and dumbness, my book also includes lighter chapters, such as one on the joys of Army food: DFAC, T-rats, and MREs.
The MREs could be nasty. In the words of one soldier, “You can live on them but you shit rocks from having done so.” Sorry. Sometimes the truth isn’t nice.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
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