Chaplain Burgess P. Riddle conducts Thanksgiving Day Services on Nov. 23, 1950 during the Korean War

Before you eat your turkey dinner this Thanksgiving make sure to give thanks to the soldiers who spent a total of three Thanksgivings between 1950-1953 fighting the Korean War.  Here is a letter home that explains one soldier’s Thanksgiving during the war:

Bill Shepard of Plymouth, US Army, Korea :
“I came back home after the Second World War and then was recalled during the Korean War.  It was a shock — I hadn’t even really told my new wife that I was still in the Reserves…
“I wrote a letter home from Korea on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 1951, that my wife has saved.  You can see by the letter :
Am so full I can hardly move!  We just finished eating a huge turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  I’ll enclose the menu.  Typical Army — feast or famine, but today we had the feast.
We were up on the front lines eating cold K rations and then suddenly we go to the rear for Thanksgiving dinner, and then right back to the front line!”