We Are The Mighty:
Thanksgiving is quickly approaching and the Navy is stocking up on ingredients to prepare this year’s feast for your Sailors.
This year the Navy is planning to serve:
Shrimp Cocktail – 9,000 lbs.
Roast Turkey – 89,350 lbs.
Baked Ham – 24,430 lbs.
Sweet Potatoes – 18,000 lbs.
Mashed Potatoes – 31,304 lbs.
Stuffing – 17,200 lbs.
Gravy – 1,800 gal.
Green Bean Casserole – 8,000 lbs.
Corn on Cob – 7,200 lbs.
Cranberry Sauce – 6,100 lbs.
Egg Nog – 2,200 gal.
Assorted Pies – 5,800 per galley
“Every Thanksgiving our culinary specialists take on the huge task of feeding our Sailors, and every year they succeed,” said NAVSUP Director of Navy Food Service Cmdr. Scott Wilson. “Being away from family and friends during this time of year isn’t easy, but that motivates our Culinary Specialists to provide a quality meal to our Sailors. The joy we see on Sailors’ faces makes all of the effort worth it.” Read more
Petty Officer 2nd Class Mitchell Reed, right, cuts slices of turkey for Petty Officer 3rd Class Kelby Maynor for a Thanksgiving dinner aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61). Monterey, deployed as part of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, is supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class William Jenkins/Released)
A friend was a supply officer on a submarine. He laid it all out to me in excruciating detail. Providing food is a big deal. Especially during the holidays.
This use of my tax dollars I highly approve of.
Wait a minute…I thought the Army gets the gravy
and the Navy gets the Beans (that’s what Dean and Jerry said)
Ha,we had one cook on my boat who would ,while in port, stop at grocery store and buy deserts. We did not mind as that was better than anything he could cook.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cg0TjoEkt0
AMERICAN NOSTALGIA: The 1950s Thanksgiving
I’m not eating anything with the word cock in it.
ARMY FOOD TACTIC #175
The chow hall that serves the base administration ALWAYS eats 3+ levels higher than everyone else.
My chow hall: hamburgers, spaghetti, corn, beans etc.
Admin chow hall: Steak, Lobster tail, unending supply of deserts. Soda machine totally operable and topped-off, clean tables….the works.
1978-Navsecgru Homestead Fla. Our meal for the eve watch was 2 cold hot dogs ( still kind of square shape longitudinally) and an ice cream scoop of cold mac and cheese. The 1st class messman was stealing food from the mess and selling it to local restaurants.
Ahh yes, memories of Navy chow at Thanksgiving! Yumm…..
I suspect that this thread is about to erupt in hilarity.
Whoa… What a coincidence… That’s my Thanksgiving shopping list too.
I did get a free Thanksgiving meal at a downtown San Diego restaurant the day before Thanksgiving in 1973 as we were shipping out aboard the USS Kitty Hawk CV 63 the next day after Thanksgiving on an 8-9 month cruise to SE Asia etc. And the Navy for the most part did have good food on board the ship but especially at NAS Miramar, NAS North Island in San Diego and NAS Cubi Point in the Philippines. I never went hungry and you can put away a lot of calories when your young and working on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.
Nothing beats a destroyer breakfast during rough seas, especially the pork chops with the congealed grease.
I was deployed for Thanksgiving and Christmas for 4 out of my 6 years and I do remember the cooks trying (but the 2nd class cook with the big belly never measure up to mom.)
For a short period, I was an armed orderly outside the Captain’s mess.
The Filipino Cooks were truly chefs in all regards. I ate like a King…
… then I was reassigned, it was back to the enlisted mess, what a culinary let down.
Are they planning on teaching anyone how to navigate a destroyer, follow the chain of command, maybe look at the radar occasionally?
I think John McCain, in his Navy days, was responsible for a barbecue on the USS Forrestal.
Go find another retired Navy Chief and ask him how good the deep fried hamsters were.
We had names for everything the cake slashers and stew burners would make us.
My favorite breakfast was creamed foreskins on bisquits. Damn near as good as sausage gravy.
They have this five pound loaf of cubed light/dark compressed turkey meat mix they throw in a oven boat and roast. When that comes out of the oven, it is heaven.
Both good times and bad times with Navy food. Didn’t kill me though.
My son was a CS (Culinary Specialist) on the Nimitz.
Every holiday was days of prep and literally tons of food.