GIs won’t get to dine with local families
The pandemic has claimed Fiesta and Wurstfest, closed parksonmajorpatriotic holidays, shrouded Halloween events and canceled the big Jimenez Thanksgiving dinner.
Now, it has shelved another Turkey Day tradition — the annual effort by families around town to host young soldiers and airmen from local military bases.
Scratched from this year’s holiday calendar are Mission Thanksgiving, an Army event that since 1983 has placed hundreds of soldiers with local families whowant to treat them to a home-cooked meal, and the Air Force’s even longer-running Operation Home Cooking, which does the same with basic trainees.
Both programs assign pairs of servicemen and servicewomen with a family in the area.
“This is an event that thousands of trainees and airmen have enjoyed over the years,” said the commander of Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland’s 37th Training Wing, Col. Rockie K. Wilson. “San Antonio-area families have been gracious, welcoming and supportive, and we know it’s a tradition for many of them and we share their disappointment.
“Providing our airmen with a warm and welcoming family to spend the holiday with while they are away from home is one of the best parts of being in Military City, U.S.A.,” he added.
Troops at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston will dine on post this Thanksgiving rather than spend time with families or at outside events such the Valero Energy Corp. feast at its corporate headquarters here. Jose Rodriguez, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence, said the risk of spreading COVID-19 forced the decision.
Valero volunteers and their families typically have welcomed hundreds of troops unable
Scratched this year are Mission Thanksgiving, an Army event, and the Air Force’s Operation Home Cooking.
to travel home for Thanksgiving. In addition to a classic holiday meal, Valero provided big-screen televisions for watching parades and football games, handed out door prizes and put on a “Military’s Got Talent” contest.
Last year marked the company’s 15th annual Thanksgiving event, which drew 525 soldiers, sailors and airmen from the Medical Education and Training Campus at Fort Sam.
The Air Force has held Operation Home Cooking for 45 years, and it sent more than 4,000 airmen from basic training into the community last year.
A new effort, Operation Family Feast, began about five years ago when a locally assigned staff sergeant wanted to extend the tradition to technical school students, but that, too, has been canceled.
“We’re trying to keep them within a cohort,” explained Robert Rubio, acting chief of public affairs for the 37th Training Wing at Lackland. “Once they’re clear in their restriction of movement, oncewe knowthey’re negative (in testing for the virus) and not exposed, we want to minimize that exposure to any outside source as much as possible.”
Trainees at Lackland and Fort Sam who stay on their installations — this year, it will be all of them — are treated to a holiday meal served by senior leaders, an American military tradition seen around the world.
The airmen will have Thanksgiving dinner at 10 Lackland dining halls, all but two of them reserved for recruits in basic training. Veterans, who had been invited to those dinners with tech school trainees, probably will not come onto the base this year.
“It’s hard to say,” Rubio added.