To The Editor

A Veteran’s view of Thanksgiving

During my twenty-one plus years of active duty, many Thanksgivings were overseas away from my family. Two were in a hostile area.

Folks have many different views of the holiday and celebration of Thanksgiving. I have always looked at it as the premier family reunion of the year. Brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, kids, parents, and grandparents. We also had very close friends and even elderly neighbors with no nearby family. It was a crammed packed house of happy and joyous people with the focus on fellowship and Grandma’s cooking.

When I say Grandma’s cooking, just picture in your mind’s eye “Lamberts”. It was a vast cornucopia of homemade vittles. Ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cream style green beans, pink stuff, green stuff, both kinds of cranberries. We would eat until stuffed, but still have room for fresh pumpkin and apple pie. After eating, the adults would take a nap and the kids would play outside. In a couple hours we were eating again. It usually occupied an entire weekend. The family bonded. Football games were played and watched. Grandma kicked everyone out of the living room to watch her Lawrence Welk television show.

As a soldier I spent my first Thanksgiving stationed at Ft. Benning. Our company mess hall was decorated and our mess sergeant put on a feast. Many married NCOs and officers brought their families, but they weren’t my family and I was miserably homesick.

My next Thanksgiving was in the middle of my jump school training in becoming a paratrooper. Sadly, it was just another work day.

The next three Thanksgivings were in Northern Italy. Now a sergeant, several of us would spend the holiday skiing in the nearby Alps.

Returning to the states and meeting my bride of 43 years, the next many Thanksgivings were with her family and were of the type I had as a kid. We always had 20 or more folks having a great time.

However, in ‘86 through ‘88, I was stationed in Honduras piloting reconnaissance aircraft during the secretive Contra War of the Reagan years. This included thousands of hours flying the buffer zone between Honduras and Nicaragua, as well as, overflight missions of El Salvador. The Aviation unit was small, but we were very close. Both years, we were able to sneak a plane to the States to load up on frozen turkeys and all the food to fix for the troops. Our farm boys, a blessing in any unit, made grills out of 55 gallon oil drums. They cooked all night preparing eight turkeys with all the trimmings for our Company. Even though my wife and little boy were thousands of miles away, those two Thanksgivings were the best I had in the military.

Thank you Lord God for this amazing nation. Dear Lord, please be with our servicemen and women away from their families this Thanksgiving.

David W. Shifflett

Retired in Doniphan