Much to be thankful for

In 2004, 1/7 Marines on patrol in Husaybah celebrated Thanksgiving huddled around a campfire, eating MREs. This picture was taken by PFC Rael, Bravo Company, 1st Platoon, 3rd Squad.

Five years later, my son Shane Conrad, who deployed three times with 1/7 Marines will be eating turkey and pumpkin pie instead of MREs. He is living in Oregon, halfway through his baccalaureate program, active in his local VFW, and President of the Portland chapter of Team River Runner, part of a national program to bring health and healing through the form of whitewater recreation to military veterans. It's a great program and it deserves your support. Your tax-deductible donations will give the gift of white water recreation to those who have fought for their country and have returned home physically and/or emotionally injured. Contributions are used to purchase equipment, food, gas, and other items necessary to ensure that every returning troop who wants to kayak or raft has the chance to do so. If you target your donation to the Portland, Oregon chapter, it will purchase equipment for weekly roll sessions and underwrite the January 1 trip down the Sandy River. Brrr!

We still have 70,000 troops in Afghanistan, living in conditions which are arguably similar to Iraq back when my son was deployed. And, Thanksgiving may be just another day in wartime but it doesn't stop our Marines from doing what they do best - improvising, adapting, and overcoming. That flames were involved was a definite plus.

Marines' Thanksgiving dinner in Helmand nearly flames out
By JAY PRICE
McClatchy Newspapers

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HASSANABAD, Afghanistan -- Just getting the ingredients for Golf Company's one-day-early Thanksgiving dinner was a military operation.

First, the Marines consulted their translators. Then the translators persuaded the Afghan border police to go to a market in what may be the most dangerous part of Helmand province.

Buying the $68 worth of chicken and hot peppers and potatoes and rice and flat bread turned out to be the easy part, however. It was the cooking Wednesday night that nearly caused a squad of casualties.

"Hey, you can't put out a grease fire like that!" someone yelled as one of the self-appointed chefs, Cpl. Cody Baird, 21, of Thurmont, Md., yanked a woklike pan full of flaming grease off the fire, which was fueled by broken up shipping pallets.

He swung the pan around, his mitt already on fire, and he had to set the pan on the ground before the rest of him went up in flames.

That was, by a conservative count, grease fire No. 8, including a crowd-pleaser with flames that reached almost as high as the walls of the camp.

And the actual cooking hadn't begun.

Baird and Lance Cpl. Colin Cummings, 21, of Plattsburgh, N.Y., were still dicing peppers and potatoes and trying to figure out how to adjust the fire to a reasonable temperature so it wouldn't light the oil in the pans.

Not that fire was the only potential danger. Sanitation was also called into question.

"Hey, isn't that the knife you use to kill all those mice?" asked a Marine onlooker.

"It's OK, I used hand sanitizer on it," said Cummings, brandishing the wicked, curved blade.

"Dude!" said Baird, sounding as if he didn't seriously object to a little mouse hair.

Read the rest here. And, if you'd like to join the effort to make our Marines a bit merrier at Christmas, check out Operation Santa. Now in its sixth year, Marine supporters all over the United States are filling and shipping Christmas stockings for our deployed troops. And, if you're looking for an end of the year tax-deduction, consider a donation to the Marine Corps Family Foundation. Because MCFF has no paid staff, administrative costs are extremely low and over 95% of your contribution will go directly to support deployed Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen.

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