A Very General Austin Thanksgiving

"Good morning, gentlemen. ACME pollution inspection. We're cleaning up the world, we thought this was a suitable starting point." - James Bond
Thanksgiving Day dawned bright and clear at COB Adder. On face value, it seemed as though it was any other day. Since the mess hall is closed, the meal prospects were flexibly limited to the variety within a case of MRE's. My choice selection for Thanksgiving dinner would be chicken and dumplings. There was no expectation that it would come close to my Mom's delicious dish of the same name so I knew I couldn't be disappointed. The big order of business for all of us was that General Austin, the 4-star Commander of United States Forces-Iraq (USF-I) was paying us a visit. His intent was to recognize a few of our Soldiers for their hard work and effort and share a few words of praise with all of us. The backdrop for his visit was very appropriate - the convoy staging lanes. There were at least a dozen or more convoys lined up carrying massive quantities of retrograde cargo southward as part of the retrograde from Iraq. Many of the trucks came from my Battalion. Accordingly, several of the Soldiers GEN Austin would be recognizing came from my Transportation Companies. Around 1000 that morning, we assembled in a corner of the staging lanes adjacent to the Convoy Support Center (CSC) and waited for his arrival. A short time later the entourage arrived. There were MP vehicles with lights flashing followed by a motorcade of various SUV's. The 4-Star insignia was clearly posted on the windshield of his vehicle. GEN Austin is a mountain of a man who must've played offensive line back when he was a Cadet at West Point. He towers at least 6ft 5in or more and looks as though he could still suit up and play. Upon his arrival he wasted no time and proceeded through the rank of Soldiers, presenting each of them with his Commanding General coin and thanking each of them for their hard work. Once the last coin was presented he shared words with all of us. This was his sixth Thanksgiving away from home over the course of operations in Iraq. Being as this was only my third away from home, I didn't feel so bad anymore. GEN Austin's words put much into perspective in a manner that made it easy for all of us to relate. It was an excellent talk that void of bravado and fluff. Afterward, he shook hands and took photos with all of us before heading back to the airfield to move on to the next FOB. There were other Soldiers he would recognize and share words of praise with on this Thanksgiving day.

That night I did what just about everyone else did. I called home on Skype and wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving. At the same time they were sitting down for a traditional holiday meal, I was tearing into my chicken and dumplings MRE. To my surprise, it was actually pretty good. It wasn't nearly up to Mom's standards but heated and mixed with a little Tony Chachere's it was an enjoyable, memorable meal. Even though this wasn't my first Thanksgiving deployed, it was the first one where there was no mess hall to put out a lavish spread. It was a truly expeditionary Thanksgiving, which highlighted the approaching end of operations in Iraq. It will definitely be the last Thanksgiving any of us spend in Iraq. That, in itself, gave all of us much to be thankful for. I don't recommend having an MRE for any holiday meal if you have other options available. But when it is the only option you'll find the MRE isn't that bad at all. As I mentioned previously, you can also take comfort in knowing that MRE's are "fortified" - something else to be thankful for while spending an expeditionary Thanksgiving away from home while on deployment to Iraq.