Photo By Staff Sgt. Jeremy Bratt | U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Chukwuma Enubuzor (left) and Sgt. 1st Class Charles Myers...... read more read more
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CAMP ARIFJAN, KUWAIT – With Christmas music wafting gently through the air, the Soldiers and officers of the 369th Sustainment Brigade, famously known as the Harlem Hell fighters, piled into a tent at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Turkeys, pilgrims, and autumn leaves hung from the walls as the Soldiers sat down to celebrate a somewhat belated, but no less special, Thanksgiving holiday.
As with every military installation during the holidays, Camp Arifjan hosted a variety of events for Soldiers to mark the holiday, from MWR and USO activities, to a lavish Thanksgiving dinner in its dining facilities which, in accordance with military tradition, was served by the commanders and senior enlisted advisors from the various units located here. But despite these offerings, the Soldiers of the 369th decided that they needed to do more.
“We want to build morale and welfare for our troops,” said 1st Sgt. Mahendranauth Dabichan, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company 369th SB.
He says the goal of the dinner was to, “make sure [Soldiers] have a little taste of home. Because, remember, they’re missing home; so us as a [unit] have to give them that comfort of home.”
The effort was led by Sgt. 1st Class Violet Plaza, with assistance from Soldiers across the entirety of the 369th SB, 369th Special Troops Battalion, and the brigade’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company. The meal was prepared at one of Camp Arifjan’s dining facilities, along with a charcoal grill located outside the tent. It included many Thanksgiving staples, such as stuffing and pumpkin pie, as well as other dishes reflecting the diversity of the unit, such as curry chicken, rice, and pasta.
“It was well put together. The food was amazing,” says Spc. Kyle Beckley.
Despite the base conducting its Thanksgiving activities, he says it was far more special to have the unit go to the extra length for its Soldiers. “To have a place where we can all sit down, kind of like a family, eat together with food that they made, with decorations that they put up, that was way more than I expected. It was awesome.”
According to Plaza, family is what it is all about.
“I felt like we were supposed to come together as a family, as a military family. When you share a meal it makes you forget where you are. It makes you more human and more in touch with what’s inside you, not what’s outside,” she says.
As the evening wound down and Soldiers began to make their way back to the barracks, Dabichan stood over a still-smoking grill, spraying it with water in an attempt to simultaneously douse the flames and clean the metal grate. He says the evening went well and that, “Soldiers are happy. It was a good turnout.
“We cooked a lot of food and everybody ate seconds and thirds, which is good. If they weren’t having seconds and thirds, they weren’t happy,” he says with a laugh and a smile.
He added that he is looking forward to doing more events such as this for Christmas and the New Year.
The 369th SB deployed to Kuwait in early October with approximately 250 Soldiers to oversee the logistics and transportation operations in support of Coalition forces the Middle East and is expected to return in Summer of 2017.
| Date Taken: | 11.26.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 11.28.2016 06:50 |
| Story ID: | 215817 |
| Location: | CAMP ARIFJAN, KW |
| Hometown: | ALBANY, NY, US |
| Hometown: | BROOKLYN, NY, US |
| Hometown: | BUFFALO, NY, US |
| Hometown: | CARTHAGE, NY, US |
| Hometown: | HARLEM, NY, US |
| Hometown: | NEW YORK, NY, US |
| Hometown: | QUEENS, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 84 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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