BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan -- Growing up in Roanoke, Va., in a family that was a mix of Italian-Americans and Pennsylvanian Dutch-Germans, I've always associated Thanksgiving with the Blue Ridge mountains, turkey hunting and Italian cooking.
The day itself was a big deal for my family as it always involved two meals. In the late morning, we ate with my mother's family and enjoyed a traditional meal of Southern-fried chicken and wild turkey. The gobbler was usually killed and cleaned by my grandfather the day before.
Dinner that day was at the home of my Italian grandparents. They were as "old world" as one could wish, and the meal was prepared in a manner fitting a family from Italy's Abruzzo region.
Those nostalgic moments are important to me as a father, husband and soldier, as they reflect the inclusiveness of a unique American holiday.
The same can be said of the Thanksgiving meals served to U.S. servicemen and women deployed to places like Waza Khwa, Tikrit, Djibouti and the Korean DMZ.
Freezing cold or stifling hot, airmen, Marines, sailors and soldiers will come together in dining facilities, ward rooms, tents and around the tailgates of Humvees to enjoy a traditional meal with turkey, gravy, potatoes, corn and pumpkin pie. The meal may be served out of large plastic cans on paper plates with plastic knives and forks, but the military will move mountains if necessary to ensure that service members can share a meal as fellow warriors and Americans.
This tradition is so important that it transcends rank and status. Once, while flying a UH-60 Black Hawk in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, I left a colonel from the General Staff behind on the tarmac to ensure that Special Forces soldiers in a remote camp could have a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day. It was 20 dinners versus one irate colonel's silver eagles - the turkeys won hands down.
Yes, I was later reprimanded by that same officer, but it was well worth it just to see the smiles on the soldiers' faces when we unloaded those dinners in the middle of a remote Afghan valley.
Thanksgiving is also a bond we share with our brother Afghan and Iraqi soldiers serving by our side. The custom at many forward operating bases and combat outposts is to invite our comrades to share a meal and forget the horrors of war just a few hundred meters away. Communal meals are common in the Middle East and Asia, and Thanksgiving is one holiday that recognizes no nationality, ethnicity or culture - food, friendship and community are traits shared by all of mankind.
This Thanksgiving, as you sit down to dinner with your family, window-shop at the mall or cheer your favorite football team to victory, just pause for a moment and share a prayer with the men and women of our armed forces standing watch around the world.
Lt. Col. Jayson A. Altieri, whose family lives in Raleigh, is assigned to the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan. He has served one tour of duty in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. The views here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army or Defense Department.
