November 22, 2017
This is “Our Past Is Present” from
the Geary County Historical Society.
With large numbers of American troops
deployed again this Thanksgiving, today’s story is about the kind of meal
served to our troops during WWII. The “Junction
City Union” reported that for Thanksgiving dinner in 1949 every man and woman
in Uncle Sam’s armed services would sit down to a good old fashioned turkey
dinner whether they were in Japan, Alaska, Okinawa or Kansas. Each person would have a pound and a half of
turkey with all the trimmings including cranberry sauce, candied sweet potatoes
and pumpkin pie.
The Army Quartermaster Corps, which
had charge of procuring the food for all services had purchased about five
million pounds of turkey since June and expected to buy more. They had started buying turkeys for the
Orient in early spring and turkeys for eastern posts and Europe were purchased
later. Service men and women were
permitted to invite immediate family and/or a friend.
At the Fort Riley Mess Hall, it was
reported that they would have about 14 cooks to help prepare the entire dinner,
with two men devoting their entire time to turkey carving beginning just after
breakfast Thanksgiving Day. All the cooks
were graduates of the Army Cooking and Baking School at Fort Meade, Maryland.
The
dinners were all prepared by a master menu, which was made in advance by home
economics experts and sent out to the troops.
These menus were carried out by Mess Officers, cooks and local
Commanding Officers.
We
wish all of you and especially our troops stationed in the States and abroad a
Happy Thanksgiving from the Geary County Historical Society.
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