What’s Thanksgiving like in the Navy?

Being in the Navy has its ups and downs. Long underways and deployments, seemingly inane decision-making, tough hours, and grueling manual labor are some of the first that come to mind. One of the best parts about being in the Navy is the chow, and if you’re on a ship or on duty during Thanksgiving, you’re in for a pretty awesome treat.

So what’s it like being in the Navy on Thanksgiving? First off, you’re getting actual meat, carved right off the bone. Turkey, honey ham, whatever the ship’s got. Barring a supply shortage, you can expect not to get that awful processed sandwich meat stuff they throw out on a regular day.

Right next to the turkey are all the good ol’ American staples: green bean casserole, fresh-baked bread, corn, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and all the other trimmings. It’s an actual meal, and it’s the best thing that’ll happen to a sailor during a long at-sea time. If the ship is in port, or if you’re on a base, you can expect to get the football games, too. They pull out all the stops for the sailors who have to be away from their families, and to be honest, they don’t have to. If they told us they’d throw some day-old bagels on the mess decks and afterwards we were doing fire drills, we’d still do it.

There’s a lot of crap that comes with being a sailor. Thanksgiving is one of the awesome bones the government throws our shipmates, and we appreciate every inch of it. We give thanks that there’s at least one day a year where we don’t have to drill, don’t have to sweep the p-ways, or any of the other things that make up a sailor’s day-to-day grind. Thanksgiving in the Navy isn’t missing a damn thing. We’ve got our family right next to us, after all.

Show your Navy pride and give thanks for the awesome things the Navy does for our sailors on Thanksgiving with the steel battle-worn American flag! Made of high-quality materials, this thing is sure to remind you of your service for years and years to come.