Here’s How Much Turkey and Pie Is Being Sent to Deployed Troops Around the World

Military.com | By Dorothy Mills-Gregg

More than 131 tons of food will ensure members serving abroad, including those newly deployed to Saudi Arabia, will still have all the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner.

The Defense Logistics Agency, which distributes supplies to the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and others, began planning in April on how to deliver 66,741 lbs of roasted turkey, 80,546 lbs of beef and other food in time for the troops’ Thanksgiving meals.

“I know the feeling of missing family and friends during the holiday season,” DLA Troop Support Commander Army Brig. Gen. Gavin Lawrence said in a news release. “Our workforce takes great pride in ensuring deployed warfighters have a taste of the holidays while they are protecting our freedoms.”

Related: DoD Sends 63 Tons of Thanksgiving Meals to Troops

The DoD is also sending these main dishes downrange:

• 4,925 whole turkeys
• 44,384 lbs of shrimp
• 43,648 pounds of ham

This year’s total Thanksgiving fixings are significantly higher than that of three years ago, which was more than 63 tons.

In addition to turkey and other meats for this year’s holiday feast, the Department of Defense has sent the following fixings to the frontlines:

• 27,605 lbs of sweet potatoes
• 39,797 pies
• 7,032 cakes
• 5,804 gallons of eggnog

These holiday rations will go to field kitchens, dining facilities and galleys for troops in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Korea, Japan, Qatar and Honduras.

For the Army’s portion, the Army News Service reported, most of the food will go to U.S. Central Command’s area of operations.

Sgt. Maj. Kara Rutter, Army Central Command’s culinary management NCO in charge, said in the release they had to make some adjustments before shipping to include the new troops recently deployed to Saudi Arabia after its oil facilities were attacked by Iran two months ago.

Rutter also said they make adjustments to some Thanksgiving supplies depending on location, such as nations that prohibit pork products.

But the goal is to provide overseas members a taste of the Thanksgiving they would receive at home.

“You can talk to most any Soldier and they grew up having turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry jelly,” she said, “and that’s the same thing they’re going to have in the middle of Iraq this year.”

— Dorothy Mills-Gregg can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @DMillsGregg.

*********

••••

Stay tuned to …

••••

The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)

••••

Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.

••••

Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

••••

Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.