U.S. Armed Forces Tweets On Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! #Airmen #USAF pic.twitter.com/vXDHD2PpnP

— U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) November 22, 2018

Washington Examiner: US armed forces show how Thanksgiving is done

Several branches of the U.S. armed forces on Thursday tweeted out Thanksgiving Day messages, including the U.S. Air Force, which showed how airmen prepare a holiday meal, ready-to-eat.

The Air Force tweeted out a short video showing how turkey, vegetables and mashed potatoes are dispensed and eaten.

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To WNU's American Readers, Happy Thanksgiving

DoD graphic by Daniel Garas

WNU Editor: I wish I was with my brother today in California. He is doing a smoke turkey.

U.S. Soldiers Prepare For Thanksgiving

Soldiers with Task Force Lifeliner, Joint Forces Command – United Assistance dive into one of the many Thanksgiving pies and desserts offered in the dining facility at brigade support area in Buchanan, Liberia, Nov. 27, 2014. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Mary Mittlesteadt

NBC: Why is the Pentagon sending so many pies to our troops this Thanksgiving?

Troops deployed overseas are getting an extra 75,000 pies — a more than twelvefold increase — because of "a change in menu planning."

WASHINGTON — There will be more than 12 times as many pies heading to U.S. troops deployed away from their loved ones this Thanksgiving — a total of 81,360 versus last year's pie count of 6,288.

Why is there a pie surge? It's a mystery.

Traditionally, the Defense Logistics Agency, which handles food supplies for the military, feeds troops that are deployed in hazardous areas over the holidays. In past years the DLA has sent meals to troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and other bases in the Central Command area and the Middle East. There are currently about 40,000 troops in those sectors, a number similar to the 2017 total.

This year, the U.S. also has more than 5,000 troops on border duty in Texas, Arizona and California.

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WNU Editor: I love pie.

Happy Thanksgiving To My American Readers

WNU Editor: Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers. And speaking of Thanksgiving, this is a fascinating read .... The First Thanksgiving Was Nothing Like What You Were Taught (John Daniel Davidson, The Federalist).

To My American Readers .... Happy Thanksgiving

How The Civil War Created Thanksgiving -- Kenneth C. Davis, New York Times

Of all the bedtime-story versions of American history we teach, the tidy Thanksgiving pageant may be the one stuffed with the heaviest serving of myth. This iconic tale is the main course in our nation’s foundation legend, complete with cardboard cutouts of bow-carrying Native American cherubs and pint-size Pilgrims in black hats with buckles. And legend it largely is.

In fact, what had been a New England seasonal holiday became more of a “national” celebration only during the Civil War, with Lincoln’s proclamation calling for “a day of thanksgiving” in 1863.

That fall, Lincoln had precious little to be thankful for. The Union victory at Gettysburg the previous July had come at a dreadful cost – a combined 51,000 estimated casualties, with nearly 8,000 dead. Enraged by draft laws and emancipation, rioters in Northern cities like New York went on bloody rampages. And the president and his wife, Mary, were still mourning the loss of their 11-year-old son, Willie, who had died the year before.

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Update: A Wartime Proclamation of Thanksgiving -- Abraham Lincoln

WNU Editor: To my American readers .... Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day For U.S. Troops -- News Roundup

A soldier from the 101st Airborne Division enjoys a drumstick in eastern Afghanistan’s Pech Valley on Thanksgiving Day 2010. (Andrea Bruce — The Washington Post)

Delivering Turkey To Troops Gets A Little Trickier -- Washington Post

It can be hard to organize Thanksgiving dinner for tens of thousands of troops overseas. It is surely harder to organize a Thanksgiving dinner when you don’t know how many troops will be left to feed.

This year, the Defense Department plans to deliver about 168,000 pounds of turkey – including roughly 6,000 whole birds – to troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait. Also being delivered: 37,800 pounds of stuffing, 43,560 pounds of sweet potatoes and 34,560 pies, plus some other dishes.

Read more ....

More News On Thanksgiving Day For U.S. Troops

Getting Turkey To The Troops -- NPR
As troops prepare exit, turkeys deploy to Iraq -- Army Times
U.S. Military Takes Turkey to Troops in Afghanistan -- Bloomberg
Troops reach out for help feeding their families at Thanksgiving -- Stars and Stripes
Prince Harry Spends First Thanksgiving Partying in Vegas, Renting a Harley -- ABC News
USO airport volunteers welcome troops on holiday -- CBS News/AP
Panetta Issues Thanksgiving Message to Troops, Families -- US Department of Defense
Chairman, Senior Enlisted Advisor Send Thanksgiving Wishes -- US Department of Defense
Obama Telephones Thanks To Service Members Abroad -- Salon

Video: Last Thanksgiving Feast: Real Meal In Iraq

Dagger Dining Facility at Victory Base Complex serves up a traditional Thanksgiving feast before closing doors for good. Includes interviews with Staff Sgt. Christopher Quimbly, Maj. Jeffrey Schmidt from Eugene, Ore., Sgt. Cameron Turk from Ocean City, Md. Available in high definition.

My Comment: So .... this is the last Thanksgiving meal in Iraq for U.S. soldiers .... good riddance to Iraq I say, and may your Thanksgiving dinner next year be back home.

American Soldiers Prepare For Thanksgiving

Soldiers Worldwide Prepare For Gobbler, Trimmings -- www.Army.mil

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Nov. 22, 2011) -- Soldiers worldwide, including those at more than 270 dining facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq, can give thanks for a familiar taste of home this week on Thanksgiving.

About 168,000 pounds of turkey, 37,800 pounds of stuffing, 93,876 pounds of beef, 43,560 pounds of sweet potatoes, 24,000 pounds of shrimp, 34,560 pies and 25,800 pounds of cranberry sauce -- along with other holiday treats -- were shipped to troops overseas by the Defense Logistics Agency.

Read more ....

My Comment: That`s a lot of food being shipped around the world.

Happy Thanksgiving To All Of My American Readers

Photos, from top: Lincoln, center speaking, at his second inaugural Credit: Library of Congress. Credit: Library of Congress; Obama visits a food bank Credit: Larry Downing / Reuters; Obama touches Apple, the national turkey. Credit: Win McNamee Getty Images.

By The President Of The United States Of America, A Proclamation

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Abraham Lincoln days before his death with his youngest son Thomas nicknamed Tad by his father because he was wiggly like a tadpole 4-10-65 Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.

Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans. mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

/s/ ABRAHAM LINCOLN

More News On Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving – November 25, 2010 -- Admiral Mike Mullen
Troops Spend Thanksgiving Away from Home -- U.S. Department of Defense
Army Families Cope With Holiday Separations -- U.S. Department of Defense
Marines try to make the most of Thanksgiving in Afghanistan -- Stars And Stripes
At one Afghan base, U.S. troops have extra reason to be thankful -- Miami Herald/McClatchy News
Kunar PRT hosts Afghan-American Thanksgiving -- Dvids
American soldiers celebrate Thanksgiving in Afghanistan -- NECN
Remember our military heroes this Thanksgiving -- Daily Caller