Cooking Thanksgiving dinner in Afghanistan

It’s no easy task evidently as this story from McClatchy shows:

Just getting the ingredients for Golf Company’s one-day-early Thanksgiving dinner was a military operation.

First, the Marines consulted their translators. Then the translators persuaded the Afghan border police to go to a market in what may be the most dangerous part of Helmand province.

Buying the $68 worth of chicken and hot peppers and potatoes and rice and flat bread turned out to be the easy part, however. It was the cooking Wednesday night that nearly caused a squad of casualties.

“Hey, you can’t put out a grease fire like that!” someone yelled as one of the self-appointed chefs, Cpl. Cody Baird, 21, of Thurmont, Md., yanked a wok-like pan full of flaming grease off the fire, which was fueled by broken up shipping pallets.

He swung the pan around, his mitt already on fire, and he had to set the pan on the ground before the rest of him went up in flames.

That was, by a conservative count, grease fire number eight, including a crowd-pleaser with flames that reached almost as high as the walls of the camp.

And the actual cooking hadn’t begun.

Damn, it’s funny but it’s sad..ya know? Breaks my heart that our soldiers are freezing their asses off in a country that doesn’t appreciate them on this special day of the year. But they are thankful and that is the important part:

“This is pretty good for eating,” De Young said. “It’s like KFC, and we don’t get good meals like this often, and if Cummings hadn’t thought this up, we’d be eating that stuff in the trays again.”

Damn, I got something in my eye..yeah, that’s it. Gotta start cooking people, so remember these guys today and be thankful for what you have.

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