Thanks To Those On The Front Lines: Thanksgiving In Uniform

An Army soldier keeps watch on Thanksgiving Day in Afghanistan’s Paktika province.

There’s not much to say from the comfort of Washington about troops celebrating on the front lines around the world. They’re in Afghanistan battling the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and the Haqqani network, like the young man pictured in our top photo. They’re on the ground in Iraq (and probably Syria) battling the wily criminals who’ve joined ISIL. They’re flying over Syria and bombing the terrorists.

Soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade eat a makeshift Thanksgiving at their outpost south of Kabul in 2012.

They’re in Japan manning F-22s and they’re in Guam readying B-52s to remind China of the responsibilities of a great power and the limits thereto. They’re at sea around the world, making and eating Thanksgiving dinner while the waves rock them — hopefully gently — from side to side.

A Navy chef frosts a Thanksgiving cake on the USS Jason Dunham, a destroyer deployed to the Arabian Sea and named in memory of a Marine who died earning Medal of Honor.

And they’re at home with family and friends tomorrow, if they’re really lucky (See the invite below from Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas.)

They’re all in our hearts on Thanksgiving — the staff at Breaking Defense.

(Apologies to the Air Force, which didn’t exist when the postcard above was made in 1908, and to the Marines, who were and are part of the Department of the Navy)