Happy Thanksgiving

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Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! It’s about 4:22 p.m., the sun is now setting and here I sit in Kosovo in my room watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I have found that holidays abroad can be so conflictingly bittersweet. I woke up this morning, stepped out onto my porch as the sun was just beginning to come over the horizon and even though it was vibrant with colors, it didn’t feel like a holiday. I went to work and as I walked in everybody greeted me with a loud and cheery “Happy Thanksgiving”, and we were outwardly jovial, but as I sat down at my desk, it still didn’t feel like Thanksgiving.

By 9:00 in the morning I was sitting in a room with the Brigade leadership of KFOR 12 and as the General walked in we all popped to attention and he greeted us with “Happy Thanksgiving”. It still didn’t fell like a holiday. As the briefing continued on for nearly two hours I found myself slipping back to thoughts of the past.

My first Thanksgiving away from home was 1990 when I was a much younger Transportation Specialist. We had been deployed since August of that year and had eaten nothing but the military MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat), until that special day. It was our first hot meal and a holiday meal at that. The potatoes were lumpy, gravy was thin and the turkey dried out, but it was the best meal anybody could have ever wished for! It was about having a day off to spend with your friends, to reflect and to talk about what people would be eating back home. That was a year that we were waiting for a war to start. The anticipation, the preparation we were going through, and the battle drills that were conducted were a strain on one’s psyche. Yet, we were thankful to have each other, to be able to confide in someone, to mention out loud that you were homesick and everybody would nod in agreement. Seems like a lifetime ago, but I can still smell the aroma of the fixings in those tents that we had set up.

The last time I was deployed during the Thanksgiving holiday I was smack dab in the middle of Baghdad. We had been given the day off and I can remember the smell of sulfur that was fresh from the rocket attacks. The morning was filled with the enemy taking advantage of our holiday and giving us a loud and dangerous wake up call. The walk to the messhall was filled with soldiers and civilians wishing each other happy holidays, and sharing a silent bond that brought us all together both in spirit and a single understanding of being so far away from home. The kitchen workers from the third world countries had done a marvelous job of carving pumpkins, making ice sculptures and creating a “happy place” for us all to celebrate our day.

So I didn’t really know what to expect this year. We are here in Kosovo, the safest place I’ve ever been deployed to. No rockets, no mortars, no sound of distant gunfire. We are experiencing the best deployment ever. I surely didn’t expect our entire staff to be working today. Didn’t the leadership remember it was a holiday. Hmmn? This time I was wishing people a Happy Thanksgiving in their work places, at meetings and in the hallways of the ever secure Joint Operations Center. I could hardly wait to go to the holiday meal.

We have two super large messhalls within the compound, each feeding hundreds of soldiers. I was allowed to enter early so I could get some pictures before the crowds overtook the holiday displays and messed up the nicely decorated tables. Last night the Kosovo kitchen staff had stayed late preparing our meal and visual effects for both the dining facilities. It was absolutely beautiful what they had accomplished. These people had given of their time to make our day just that much brighter.

There were cakes that were decorated with details that were unbelievable, hanging decorations, tables that were adorned with placemats and bottled wine (non-alcoholic of course!), and holiday programs that each soldier could take home as a souvenir. They had created live size people, horses, chickens, corn stalks and more. I couldn’t quite figure out the materials used but the faces looked as though they were crafted out of baking dough. Everything was so creative and I could tell that the workers took great pride in their accomplishments. I would point my camera in their direction and they would scurry over to stand in front of cakes and everything else that symbolized the holiday.

The doors finally unlocked and in came lots of hungry soldiers, civilians, multi-national military partners and anybody else that could figure out a good reason to visit Camp Bondsteel. Most soldiers would come in and then spend a moment taking in all the holiday charm, looking at the decorations, snapping pictures of the decorated tables and always commenting about how much work had gone into the dining facility.

Now I felt like it was Thanksgiving! Hundreds of soldiers standing in line, the gospel choir singing in the background, friends greeting friends and everybody wishing anybody a sincere Happy Holiday. People that didn’t speak much English would squeak out a “Happy Thanksgiving” for us. It is something quite special to be an American in a foreign land during a holiday. It really is “All About Us”. The hundreds of turkeys that were cooked, cans and cans of yams that were opened, real potatoes that I’m sure were peeled at the break of dawn, and cakes that had to have been cooked in shifts. Yes, it was all for us and it felt good. For a moment all of us were able to experience the thankfulness from the local Kosovars.

I was so lucky to have the entire logistics section decide to eat together. Twenty some of us, lined up table end to table end, enjoying each other’s company, laughing and making too many trips to the dessert bar! I was popping up and down, running around taking pictures and chatting with people, I knew my food was getting cold, but it was worth everything just to be able to spend a moment or two just letting people know how much I appreciated them. The choir was singing and I had stopped for a minute to shoot some video, so I actually listened to the words as they sang with all their heart. It was one of those moments that you just get overwhelmed. I watched the singers sing with everything they had, it was all for us. Every word, every beat of the drum and all the soulful solos that they belted out. They wanted to entertain soldiers and at that very moment I was grateful that they had chosen to take some of their holiday time to sing for us. I somehow got a little tear. Not sure exactly what happened, but all of a sudden these soldiers weren’t just my friends. For an instant, everywhere I looked I saw mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandmas and daughters. These soldiers were sitting around me and they all had a story. They left children at home who would be eating turkey with someone else. For some it would be their first holiday away from family, for others it would be just another holiday away from home while they served their country.

Some say that sending your child off for a deployment is one of the hardest things that they will experience. I would guess that holidays are difficult for everyone. We all miss someone and it is days like today that somehow no matter how hard you try, there is a twinge of homesickness that surfaces above everything else. We smile, we laugh, but guaranteed we reminisce about where we would rather be. The love of family is worn on our sleeves and felt in our hearts. I was missing home a little more today than I have in the past, maybe it’s because I’m getting a little older and I really like my holiday routines. I would be peeling potatoes and stirring gravy until all the lumps were gone. After dinner I would take a quick trip to Kmart to try and catch some of those early bird sales, and then within a few hours I would whip up a turkey and dressing sandwich on super soft white wonder bread! What nice thoughts of home.

But the one thing that I would never give up is being here. Today. I had the opportunity to spend four hours, shared between the two dining facilities and being able to greet hundreds of soldiers. One by one we would share smiles and then I would try to find a little tidbit of information about them. We have over 20 married couples that have deployed with us, more than 40 family teams like brothers and sisters and dad’s and daughters. Grandparents are taking care of the children back home and so are all those parents who are left behind to manage kids, the finances and everything else that makes a family operate.

We are all so thankful for everybody who we have left behind to manage the homefront. We love you dearly and wish you all a very special holiday. We will be with you in your hearts and know that everything we do is with thoughts of our families and wishes to be spending the holidays with them. So we thank you for the support and loving thoughts.







p.s. I have attached many (28 total) photos below of your family members and the holiday views.

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