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Floating feasts planned for deployed sailors

Thousands of sailors around the world at sea and ashore won’t be home for dinner this Thanksgiving, but the Navy is making sure they don’t go hungry.

The sea service plans to serve about 62,000 pounds of roast turkey in special dinners around the world, according to estimates from Naval Supply Systems Command, or just over about one pound for each sailor currently on deployment.

Also on the menu are 32,000 pounds of baked ham; 28,800 pounds of shrimp cocktail; 32,000 pounds of a dish called “sweet potatoes with marshmallow”; 51,200 pounds of mashed potatoes; 9,600 pounds of cranberry sauce; 32,000 pounds of green beans Parisienne; 40,000 pounds of corn on the cob; 12,000 gallons of gravy; and 32,000 pounds of bread dressing. There will be 32,000 gallons of eggnog to wash that all down, and for dessert, 25,600 pies — varieties include pumpkin, cherry crisp, apple and pecan.

Even though it’s a holiday, it’ll be business as usual aboard the carrier Enterprise on patrol in the Arabian Sea, said Lt. Mark Jones, a spokesman for the ship. The carrier will still be responsible for air strikes, if needed, in Iraq or Afghanistan, and for conducting maritime security operations in the 5th Fleet area of operations.

But dinner will be different, at least.

In a phone interview from the carrier, Jones said that the Big E’s menu reflects the Navy’s service-wide menu, with a few additions: Enterprise sailors will get prime rib as an entrée option, tomato soup as a side, and for dessert will have “a variety of cakes,” in addition to the standard-issue pies.

The ship gets ESPN, Jones said, but sailors won’t be able to watch football and slump into a tryptophan stupor the way civilians can, both because of their watch schedules and because the ship is about 9 hours ahead of the U.S. and the games won’t be on. But he said the crew will do its best to recreate a traditional holiday.

“We certainly are going to do everything we can to make sailors feel at home, make them feel like they should remember their Thanksgiving,” Jones said.

The Enterprise Strike Group sailed in July from Naval Station Norfolk, Va. on a six-month deployment. If world events don’t interfere, Navy officials say, the ships should be home for Christmas. The Harry S. Truman Strike Group, which sailed Nov. 5, is to take its place.