It’s ‘the Super Bowl for us:’ Military chefs deliver turkey to the troops despite COVID
While many Americans are scrambling to figure out how to properly celebrate Thanksgiving amid a pandemic, military chefs around the country began making their plans months ago, determined not to let the coronavirus ruin their annual feasts.
With service members’ ability to travel and gather in large numbers restricted this year, U.S. military installations have detailed plans in place to serve everyone on base, including those who are limited to their barracks due to COVID-19.
Thanksgiving “is considered the Super Bowl for us,” said Navy Senior Chief Culinary Specialist Teshowme Marshall, who helped plan the meal for Virginia’s Naval Station Norfolk. “We had to try and figure out how to still put on a show.”
At Norfolk and throughout the Navy installations on the East Coast, base chaplains are also getting involved to ensure sailors who might feel more isolated receive a meal.
“One of our chapels is offering a ‘Thanksgiving to go,’” said Capt. Stephen Shaw, chaplain for Navy Region Mid-Atlantic. “So the sailors can come and pick up a pre-made Thanksgiving dinner and take it back to their barracks room, and then they can get in touch with their family via their phone so they are having an interactive Thanksgiving.”
“It’s not ideal, but it’s one way that we can help them during this time,” Shaw added. He estimates about 400 sailors have expressed interest in the Thanksgiving-to-go meal.
The Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency began its global planning for Thanksgiving back in March. As of Tuesday, it had shipped 9,000 whole turkeys, 51,000 pounds of roasted turkeys, 74,000 pounds of beef, 21,000 pounds of ham, 67,000 pounds of shrimp, 16,000 pounds of sweet potatoes, 19,000 pounds of pies and cake and 7,000 gallons of eggnog to the more than 172,000 service members currently deployed to bases worldwide.
Marshall said the Norfolk’s military chefs began ordering for this Thanksgiving months ago, to make sure they had all the traditional meal items even as COVID impacted supply lines. They made sure to secure a favorite meal element to serve, the Steamship Round — a 60 to 70 pound leg of cow Norfolk’s military chefs cooked for about 10 hours.
The base already held one Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 19, and will host another this Thursday. The dining halls are limited to 25% capacity, but most people haven’t opted to eat inside, Marshall said.
For several hundred sailors on base who are restricted to their barracks — either because they recently arrived on base and are required to isolate for two weeks or because they were exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19 — Thanksgiving will be brought to them in boxes and left at their barracks door. Each meal can be specially ordered, including vegetarian and no pork options, or a traditional dinner which will provide them a hot box of ham, turkey, roast beef, dressing, corn on the cob and mashed potatoes, Marshall said.
“It’s tradition,” Marshall said. “We do it every year, throughout every ship galley, every base.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "It’s ‘the Super Bowl for us:’ Military chefs deliver turkey to the troops despite COVID."
