A Military Thanksgiving during World War 2

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We often bitched about the food, but we all knew that the mess cooks did an incredible job, especially at the holidays. Imagine feeding 2,000-5,000 people in an hour and a half, three times a day. They did a great job of making decorations and putting out little extras for holiday meals, nuts and candies, special dishes and such. God bless our mess cooks. ❤

It really can’t be understated how important food is to a soldier’s morale.

One of my special Thanksgiving memories is from my overseas tour of duty in 2004. My unit had to guard a church compound miles from the camp every third week and it meant 8 hours sitting in a guard tower. Through bad timing we had the duty over Thanksgiving and we were missing the evening meal. The Army does a great job feeding you during holidays (most days actually) so this was a bad luck assignment. I was sitting there at the beginning of the shift when my platoon sergeant unexpectedly appeared and said "Take your guys back in for the night. We are taking over your shift so you can eat and have the night off". The top NCOs of the unit came though with a great example of leaders taking care of their troops. I will always remember that.

As a European, I thought I knew most of the U.S. traditions but this video actually told me more about the importance of thanksgiving than all the movies, series, books etc. Thank you Max!

COMFORT CHANNEL UPLOADED LETS GOOO

The biggest yolk Low eggspectations Powder packets broken To cover the food for fighting thousands A dinner like home in the military A strained sauce of cranberry The speciality of a Max's channel Following any type of cooking manual Bringing us the lives of any type of community To bring peace, edibles and unity

My Dad was a baker and cook on a supply ship in WW2, in the South Pacific. He kept his Navy cookbook, which included their Thanksgiving menu, so your presentation brought back many memories of his Navy stories. Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to you!

I was deployed many times over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I was always amazed at the lengths the Navy would go through to get us classic holiday meals. That and ice cream were amazing morale boosters.

SteveMRE would love this type of history. It might not necessarily be an MRE, but it feels like the same realm

That quote from Boesch about "some silly bastard in the rear" was immediately relatable to my best friend who served in Iraq. "The more things change, the more they stay the same," she remarked.

That story about the Thanksgiving order from Eisenhower saddened and stunned me. I know stupid orders are issued all the time in wars, but this one I had not heard before ... war is hell anyway but it's a shame when something like this makes it worse

We had a neighbor who was on the SS Jeremiah O'Brian - as a cook. He'd never, never, talk about the war, but his wife showed me his cookbook. Amazing to behold! And that began my obsession with collecting old / older / vintage cookbooks. And this channel. Thank you Max.

My second husband was a long haul truck driver for the first 3 years we were together and we basically lived on the road. To this day my fondest memory of that time was one particular Thanksgiving. We’d dropped a load in Boise, Idaho on a Monday and a return load hadn’t been found for us until Wednesday but it was to pick up in Yakima, Washington that Friday because of Thursday being the holiday. By that time, having sat for so long, we were pretty low on cash and, so, Thanksgiving morning we decided to just head out to Yakima leisurely and at least enjoy the sunny weather, empty road, and snow covered scenery. Just over the state line I spotted a billboard advertising a nearby restaurant offering free Thanksgiving dinner, all were welcome. I couldn’t believe it. My husband was sure, even if it were true, that there would be nowhere to park the truck. He was wrong. It was out in the middle of this great expanse with open fields all around. We parked, we walked in, and were welcomed with open arms by the owner and his family who seated us amongst what looked like quite a few of the locals. The dinner was huge, it was magnificent, and, although I’ve shamefully forgotten the name of this restaurant, I’ve never forgotten the kindness we were shown or how much of an impact one meal can have.😊

It still blows my mind how often Max uploads considering the effort that goes into the research, visuals, and the actual cooking of each video.

As a former Army cook, we were trained with the mentality that each meal, especially in the field, was supposed to be the best it could be for troop morale. Thanksgiving had to be perfect or you were going to hear about it. Even the locals joined us since there was no pork.

The comment on how soldiers tend to latch onto the happier moments to remember about their war-time experience brought to mind a conversation that I had with a veteran of both WWII and Korea. He mentioned about how when he would give talks to schools about his service, he would frequently be asked questions like "How many people did you kill?" His response to those questions was always to inform the questioner and other listening that the job of a soldier during war was to kill another man with whom you would, in other circumstances, sit down and have a beer with. That bit of wisdom from the conversation has stuck with me for many years now.

My dad was a cook in the Army in WWII. He actually taught me how to cook when I was a kid. Thanks Dad!

I remember reading that lot of people who were children during WW2 basically grew up with powdered milk and eggs, and found the taste of the real stuff unpalatable when it became available again. My dad, for instance, was born in the 40s and always drank powdered milk, even in tea and coffee. It baffled the rest of us, but it's basically what he got used to.

My Grandfather told a story about his first Thanksgiving on the frontlines in Italy. They were being rotated to the rear in small groups so that they would all (hopefully) get to eat. It had been raining quite hard for some time by this point and there was supposed to be some sort of overhead cover for them to eat under…But the cooks had either forgotten or hadn’t bothered. He said by the time he got to the end of the line, the food that was in the mess kit he’d been handed had either washed off or turned into soup, it was raining so hard. Being cold, wet, tired, and down right frustrated, he chucked the mess kit, gave up, and walked back to the front. “One of many typical Army fu** ups.” 😂