--- title: "The good, the bad, and the ugly of celebrating Thanksgiving while deployed" description: "In an ideal world, Thanksgiving is spent at the dining room table, surrounded by beloved family, close friends, and good food. For U.S. service members, it's occasionally spent in the shit." date: "2019-11-21" modified: "2019-11-21" authors: - name: "Jared Keller" job_title: "Former Managing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/thanksgiving-military-deployment-war-stories/" categories: - "Culture" - "Mandatory Fun" --- # The good, the bad, and the ugly of celebrating Thanksgiving while deployed ![]() *U.S. Army Soldiers eat their Thanksgiving meal on Combat Outpost Cherkatah, Khowst province, Afghanistan, Nov. 26, 2009. The Soldiers are deployed with Company D, 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment.* *Editor’s note: This article was originally published in November 2019.* In an ideal world, Thanksgiving is spent at the dining room table, surrounded by beloved family, close friends, and good food. For U.S. service members, [it's occasionally spent in the shit.]() Luckily, U.S. troops are a resourceful bunch, and plenty of service members who have spent time downrange during the holidays have come away [with at least some fond memories]() — as well as some less-than-ideal tales of dodging mortar rounds on base when they should have been dodging political conversation at the dinner table. To that end, we asked Task & Purpose readers to share[ their best stories from celebrating Thanksgiving while deployed]() — and they came back with the good, the bad, and the ugly of their time downrange. Here are the stories of mortars, meat, and merriment from T&P readers who spent the holidays downrange. Feel free to share yours in the comments below! ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ## More great stories on Task & Purpose - **The Pentagon must deal with the** [**Oklahoma National Guard vaccine revolt**]() - [**This is Daniel Inouye**]()**, a one-man wrecking crew and the namesake of the Navy’s newest warship** - **They were painted as rogue Green Berets.** [**This is the truth the Pentagon doesn’t want you to hear**]() - **How one airman fixed the Air Force’s night vision problem** [**with a 4-cent chunk of plastic**]() - **US military** [**apologizes for misidentifying the bombs**]() **that may have killed dozens of civilians in Syria** - **A-10 pilot gets Distinguished Flying Cross for** [**Rip-It-fueled gun-run in Afghanistan**]() - [**This is the Army’s plan**]() **to keep incompetent leaders from making command sergeant major** **Want to write for Task & Purpose?** [**Learn more here**]() **and be sure to check out more great stories on** [**our homepage.**]() ## Author Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Facebook]() [LinkedIn]() [Instagram]()