I had many great meals on the ship I was on through out my 22 yrs I remember 1967 cause I was in Nam operating swift boats out of Cua Viet a base we had on the mouth of a river 7 miles from the DMZ and a Week before Thanksgiving the mess hall, a trailer took a direct hit. T Day was not the usual meal but we were there to eat it.

Westpac W.
This thread brought back a memory of NAS Agana Guam circa 1960,61. My family and I were living in NAS housing, near the VW Avionics bldg, and had a duplex neighbor whose husband was deployed in a VC or VAP det. So we all piled in our old 53 ford and made Thanksgiving dinner at the NAS messhall. My son was 3 or 4 at the time, so he had a great time digging into the candy dishes. Our trays were stacked full of turkey and all of the trimmings. We ate for what seemed like 3 hours. The mess hall was decorated, and lively with all the NAS troops. Families across the bases at NAS and NS Apra harbor, the Phillipino Army base and a Civil Affairs unit were all invited. That meal was the one and only time we ate a USN mess hall. It was truly memorable.
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Tennslim was begining to think that no one had a memorable Turkey day on base or aboard ship. Sounds like that was a big time feast, I know I remember many Thanksgiving Meals at mess halls all over in my twenty plus years. My first was in 1960 in Boot Camp in San Diego. Just a bareheaded Kid lucky to get a meal, Arrived at NTC about 0200 on the 19th of Nov. WestPac.

There were 2 for me and family. 1st was in the mess at NAS Kingsvlle TX. 2nd most remember by my 2 sons and wife were in the CPO Mess aboard the Carrier Wasp. My family will still bring up the memories of this.

Hands down...Thanksgiving 1985. I got married.

No, I didn't eat on the boat, either!

Not the best, but the most memorable one.

We just pulled back into home port after being out on a Med Cruise. I had no family in the Norfolk area and did not know anyone other than the shipmates I was out with. Well, everyone of them split as soon as we got back. I was supposed to go home with one of them up to the Baltimore area but he was gone by the time I got to the barracks. Nothing was open on base...the Galley, the Exchange, the Commisary, the McDonald's...Fortunatly for me my LPO had loaned me his car for the long weekend as he was heading out of the area. So I went outside the base (Little Creek Amphib) and found that the only place open was a BP Gas station with a convenience store attached. I went in and decided that since it was Thanksgiving I was still going to have Turkey...so I grabed the Budding brand Turkey Deli Pouches along with some Doritos and viola...My most memorable Thanksgiving.

Port visit, 1983, Halifax Nova Scotia. The Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October, right in the middle of Octoberfest. Hooked up with a local family that hosted for dinner and their lovely daughter and friends escorted us out on the town that night. Canadians do two things right; Beer and Women. And the turkey dinner was good too....

Thanksgiving 1973 in Agana, Guam. There wasn't anything really special about it except that a few of the guy's wives had made the trip over from Hawaii. The year before we had been at sea but that year we were still in refit and pulled out about a week later.

Great Lakes, 1984... everything was closed except for Naugles... had one of their huge burritos.

Other than that, any Thanksgiving where I was HOME was the best.

I don't have a favorite, but I do have a most memorable one. Thanksgiving 2007. We are in AA, with a mission that night. We always would eat at 1700, do our brief, spin up, adn go. Well, of course the DFAC was putting on a nice spread. We get there, adn there is a line a mile long, so we didn't get anything to eat, then the mission goes to hell, adn we don't get into our destination until about 0500, about 4-5 hours late. Hadji doesn't care about holidays,lol.

The most memorable one for me was 1975 aboard the USS LaSalle. We had a CWO3 Navarrez who was the food service officer. He made sure we ate well. Anyway, I had gone through the line and polished off my tray. I decided I wanted seconds so went through the line again but the guy on the other side of the steam line wouldn't serve me any. So I hunted down Mr. Navarrez and complained that I wanted seconds but the serving line guy wouldn't give me seconds. So he asked my if I really wanted seconds and I said "yes, sir". He responded "get in the line, I'll serve you". So back in line I went. He asked "more turkey"? and I said yes, sir. "more potaoes"? again I answered" yes, sir" until we had pretty much covered the menu and my tray was heaped up about 4 inches high. I went and sat back down and started to devour when next thing I knew Mr. Navarrez was seated across from me and made sure I ate every scrap. Put a new slant on being careful what you wish for.

quote:

I went and sat back down and started to devour when next thing I knew Mr. Navarrez was seated across from me and made sure I ate every scrap. Put a new slant on being careful what you wish for.

Don't know what kind of ship the LaSalle was, but to me, sounds like Navarrez was quite the ******bag. Glad I was on a fast-boat when I was at sea.

On-board my boat, we were fed well at all times. So you know (oh, I guess YOU wouldn't know), we were treated to something MORE special during the holidays... especially when at sea!

"Damn! Steak and lobster AGAIN?! Where's that prime rib we had for lunch?!"

quote:

Originally posted by Big_John_671:

quote:

I went and sat back down and started to devour when next thing I knew Mr. Navarrez was seated across from me and made sure I ate every scrap. Put a new slant on being careful what you wish for.

Don't know what kind of ship the LaSalle was, but to me, sounds like Navarrez was quite the ******bag. Glad I was on a fast-boat when I was at sea.

On-board my boat, we were fed well at all times. So you know (oh, I guess YOU wouldn't know), we were treated to something MORE special during the holidays... especially when at sea!

"Damn! Steak and lobster AGAIN?! Where's that prime rib we had for lunch?!"

At the time the LaSalle was the COMMIDEASTFOR flagship homeported in Bahrain. Mr. Navarrez really was an excellent food service officer. That was the best chow I experienced during my career. Every day was pretty good and holidays were outstanding.