Pier 6 sits where the Elizabeth River and Chesapeake Bay meet at the largest Navy complex in the world – Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
It’s Monday, windy and cold. Sailors, civilian contractors and dockworkers, or stevedores as they’re called on Pier 6, hurry to unload three enormous food trucks filled with hundreds and hundreds of pounds of Thanksgiving provisions for the USS Forrest Sherman, a destroyer that’s docked at Norfolk during the holiday.
Soon, an assembly line for the food forms; fruits, veggies, potatoes, pies and whole turkeys make their way from the truck to the deck and down into the belly of the ship, where they will sit, chilled, until they head to the galley for preparation.
On this episode, we’ll take a look at that tradition, the preparation for it and what it means to the sailors on the ship for Thanksgiving. Since antiquity, one way to learn about a military and its personnel has been through their stomachs, what they’re being fed and how much – and this year – with all of the uncertainty the world has to offer, troops are getting a lot to eat this Thanksgiving.
Main Topics
- Drew F. Lawrence visits Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, and the USS Forrest Sherman to see sailors prepare for Thanksgiving.
- Interviews with Defense Logistics Agency personnel on how much food has been sent to troops at home and abroad.
Additional Resources
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