The Enlisted Man's Christmas Dinner

[CitizenGenet]

I've been perusing the images made available by the National Naval Aviation Museum, and came upon this gem. It's the Christmas dinner served to at least some U.S. enlisted men in 1943. There wasn't much more information to further identify where the photograph was taken, though since it was with a collection of photographs taken in the Aleutians, it could have been there.

 

[dhermann1]

So, turkey breast with stuffing and cranberry sauce, corn, salad with olives, mashed sweet potatoes with gravy, asparagus (where'd they get asparagus in December? Probably canned), buttered rolls, plum pudding with hard sauce (I thought it was brownie and ice cream, but I'm sure it's plum pudding), coffee and . . . . a cigar! Where do I go to enlist?

 

[Puzzicato]

I know there was a war on and everything, but I'd really have to insist on a separate bowl for my dessert. Or eat the icecream first before it melted into my olives.

 

[Jish1969]

Not too different from what I got for Christmas dinner in the Navy while I was deployed two years ago....mmmmm...Christmas was in Cameroon and New Years was in Ghana that year.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

That looks delicious! Great photo, thanks for sharing it.

 

[fortworthgal]

Awesome photo, love the cigar!

 

[The Good]

Looks like a good, hearty meal, actually. Also, the portion looks very generous. Well, it's Christmas after all!

 

[Johnnysan]

Took me awhile to find this, but here is the actual menu for the Christmas Dinner my father shared on December 25, 1942, while with Battery "D" of the 32nd Coast Artillery Training Battalion, stationed at Camp Wallace, Texas.

 

[flat-top]

bump!