For US Soldiers, last Thanksgiving in Iraq comes a few days early

It was November 2004 and I, along with 5000 of my Marine and Seabee shipmates were spending Thanksgiving Day in Fallujah. The Battle of Fallujah had kicked off in early November and was still going well into December 2004. Thanksgiving Day was a quiet one and all were looking forward to a good meal as during the weeks before, things had been so crazy we only got one hot meal a day. Supply convoys were having difficulty making it from Baghdad to Fallujah due to insurgents and that limited the fresh food we got.

This year, 7 years later, the troops are finishing up in Iraq and had to have Thanksgiving Day Dinner a few days early as the last DFAC will be closing down. The troops are coming home and that is a good thing. Iraq is a free country and I feel we have done what we can to assist them. From here on, it will be up to the Iraqis to develop their country and get on with self governing.

This week when you sit down with your family for Thanksgiving Day Dinner, remember that there are many still out there on duty, in many other locations, doing what is needed to ensure our freedoms. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.


US soldiers mark last Thanksgiving in Iraq
By W.G. Dunlop (AFP) – 11/21/11
VICTORY BASE COMPLEX, Iraq — US soldiers gathered for an early Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday due to an impending switch to field rations at a base near Baghdad, saying they are glad they will soon be going home.

The official Thanksgiving holiday in the United States is later this week, but the last "dining facility," or DFAC, at the sprawling Victory Base Complex (VBC) on Baghdad's outskirts closed on Sunday, as US forces prepare to depart.

Soldiers and contractors, about 6,600 of whom are still at VBC, dined at tables decorated with colourful paper turkeys and "Happy Thanksgiving" signs hanging overhead.

"We're going to do the Thanksgiving meal here today instead of on Thursday, because we're closing out," said 38-year-old Staff Sergeant Christopher Quimbly, the DFAC manager.

"Today on the menu, we have crab legs, turkey, ham, dressing, yams, green beans, rolls, corn bread, mashed potatoes, (and) a variety of deserts," he said.

"Over 2,000 pounds (almost 900 kilograms) of turkey, over 2,000 pounds of ham" and "probably about 3,000 pounds of mashed potatoes" are being served, he said.

But starting with dinner on Sunday, soldiers will have to make do with bagged field rations, Quimbly said.

"I'm thankful for everything here, I'm thankful every day. ... This means a lot. I've started off over here, seen this DFAC stood up, and I'm over here when it's closing down," he said.

Quimbly, who is married and has two sons and three daughters, said he is "definitely looking forward to getting home."

He arrived for this tour, his fifth, in May 2011.

"I think it's a good morale boost for everyone," Specialist Shawna McNeil, a 23-year-old on her first tour of duty in Iraq, said of the meal.

"It's good for us because we know that time's dwindling down, it's not much longer, it's the last meal -- we're at the home stretch, ready to go home.

"I think it's good for everyone to be together and have a good meal. I know a lot of people probably miss their families, so just a little something helps out," she added.

"Seeing that this is the last (cooked) meal for the soldiers here ... it's a good thing, 'cause we know we're moving out," said 45-year-old Sergeant James Scott, who is on his second Iraq deployment.

"It's been a really good experience, and they've done a really good job," he said of the meal.

"It's the beginning of closing it down, and having a new year back home," he said, adding: "I'm ready to head back to Kentucky -- just get back and relax, and be with the family."

President Barack Obama announced on October 21 that US forces would leave by the end of this year, bringing to a close an almost nine-year war.

A Holiday Visit to Arlington National Cemetery

Be Thankful at this time of year (and always) for the brave men & women who gave us the gift of a safe & peaceful land. I was at Arlington National Cemetery in November and it is a solemn and awe inspiring place. God Bless them all.


December 22, 2010
A Holiday Visit to Arlington National Cemetery
By Donna Miles, guest blogger, American Forces Press Service

I walked the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery yesterday morning to put wreaths on the graves of two dear friends and a fallen soldier I’ve never met.

The cemetery never fails to move me, its stark white headstones standing dress-right-dress along its hills and plains for as far as the eye can see. Driving through the grand entrance gates just as they opened this morning of the winter solstice – the longest, darkest day of the year – I knew I was in for an emotional morning.

Each headstone was adorned with a holiday wreath, donated as part of the “Wreaths Across America” project. The bright red ribbons provided cheerful contrast to the cemetery’s hills and plains, much of it still blanketed with the last remnants of an early-season snow.

Walking through Section 60, the final resting place for almost 700 fallen veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, I stopped at the grave of Army Staff Sgt. James R. Patton. I’d never met “Jimmy,” as his family calls him, but I had the privilege of meeting his mother, Sheila, during a recent trip to Fort Campbell, Ky.

Jimmy, who was serving his seventh overseas deployment since 9/11 with the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, died in a helicopter crash in Tikrit, Iraq, on April 18. His father, Army Command Sgt. Major Gregory Patton, who is deployed to Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, accompanied his son’s body home for the funeral, then left to rejoin his unit. Sheila Patton, despite all she’s dealt with during the past year, has stood as a font of courage and inspiration to everyone whose lives she has touched.

“I am a proud momma of a soldier who died fighting for his country and doing what he loved doing,” she told me. “If he had to die before us, that is the only way we could ever have accepted his death: to smile and be proud and honored that God thought enough of my son to make him a hero.”

But despite Sheila’s seemingly Teflon composure, I know this Christmas will be a particularly painful one.

As I stood at Jimmy’s grave, I looked around me and took in the majesty of Arlington National Cemetery. In every direction, I saw reminders that other families, like the Pattons, will be feeling the loss of a loved one this Christmas.

Many had visited their husband’s, wife’s, father’s, mother’s, son’s, daughter’s, brother’s, sister’s gravesite, leaving behind personal and very individual tributes.

Some had left simple holiday memorials: a festive floral arrangement, a miniature Christmas tree, a wrapped gift box.

Others were more elaborate. The grave of Army Cpl. Christopher John-Lee “C.J.” West, an 82nd Airborne Division soldier killed in Iraq in February 2004, featured two American flags, a large Styrofoam snowman, a set of felt reindeer antlers and a sweatshirt of West’s beloved Dallas Cowboys.

Two bright balloons flew over the grave of Sgt. Alberto Montrond, a 7th Special Forces Group soldier killed in Afghanistan in February 2006. At the base of his headstone, next to a wreath, was a plate with two holiday cupcakes.

A large floral arrangement with a ribbon proclaiming, “Rangers Lead the Way,” adorned Army Cpl. Ryan Casey McGhee’s grave. The 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, soldier was killed in Iraq in May 2009.

His mother had left behind a hand-written Christmas card, telling her son that although she thinks of him every day, the holidays are going to be especially tough.

He won’t be there to open gifts with his family, to share in a holiday toast, or even to call from a faraway deployment to tell them he loves them. And the empty seat at the dinner table will forever be a reminder of what they’ve lost.

As I left Arlington and headed off to work, I felt a deep sense of sadness over how much so many have sacrificed.

But then I remembered Sheila Patton, and the selfless gift she and so many others like her have given me and every other American.

Merry Christmas, Gold Star families. I wish you – and all of us — peace on earth