Thanksgiving

Our parent unit, the 352nd Civil Affairs Command, decided to open its own mess hall. It was a fairly good one. There are no longer cooks in the Army (they’re all contractors), so the food served was from “T-packs”. T-packs are large tins about the size of a baking pan, 12 by 15 inches and perhaps 3 inches deep. Olive drab green in color and opened the same way you open a can of sardines, really tedious. These T-packs contained fully cooked entrees like chicken stew, as well as cooked sausages (dozens of links) in brine, scrambled eggs, scalloped potatoes, etc. Just heat and serve. This was supplemented by cases of bulk food in number 10 cans – the kind they sell at Costco or Sam’s Club. Outside the house that served as the mess hall, was a mountain of T-packs and cases of canned goods in these huge cans. “Mountain” is an accurate term, as the stack of boxes was over 10 feet high. You could - and we did – create stair steps out of the lower layers of boxes in order to climb up to the top. At the beginning of Thanksgiving week, we began our pilfering operation. The Mountain was in the courtyard and unguarded. We made off with mammoth servings of stuffing, corn, green beans, powdered and cooked potatoes, and cans of butterscotch pudding. Turkey is available in Iraq (surprisingly) so we had our interpreters go out and buy cooked turkeys for us. We got up early on Thanksgiving morning and cooked all day. It was a great feast, courtesy of the US Army. Kenny ate an entire number 10 can of butterscotch pudding all by himself, “I like butterscotch pudding”. No shit. Shortly after, the mess hall was shut down and the Mountain was dismantled and returned to the supply depot. Coincidence?