Veteran: Overfed soldier still grateful for Thanksgiving invitation
When I was drafted out of Bethany Nazarene College in 1964 during the Vietnam War, I was sent to Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, for basic training. I attended a church in downtown Columbia and was “adopted” by the Neeley family. Mrs. Neeley invited me to her Thanksgiving dinner at 2 o’clock and to bring two GI friends with me.
When Thanksgiving Day came, the mess hall’s big Thanksgiving dinner opened at 11 a.m. We three guys talked it over and agreed to go to the mess and only sample the turkey and have a slice of pumpkin pie, but when we saw the Army’s big, beautiful, morale-boosting Thanksgiving dinner, all three of us over-ate until we could eat no more.
At 2 o’clock, we arrived at the Neeley home, too full to eat again. It was agony filling our plates with dark turkey, white turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, stuffing with oyster dressing, corn, green beans, lima beans, red beats, cranberry sauce, buttered hot rolls, and for dessert, pumpkin pie with ice cream or whipped cream, or both, and more coffee or iced tea.
Never were there three more miserable, overfed soldiers, but I have this delightful memory of Thanksgiving 1964. A year later, I was eating Thanksgiving dinner at an Army mess in South Vietnam, remembering Mrs. Neeley's extravagant dinner we three GIs forced ourselves to eat.
C. Dale German of Bethany is a retired pastor, Vietnam war veteran, and former Bricktown canal boat captain.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: a veteran's thanksgiving memory
