Holiday camaraderie
Joint Base San Antonio-fort Sam Houston celebrates with 5,500 troops
The traditional Thanksgiving Day football game featuring the Detroit Lions played on TV screens around the Rocco Dining facility.
It felt a little like home, even though everyone there wore military uniforms and a command sergeant major served turkey and all the trimmings from behind the cafeteria line at Joint Base San Antonio-fort Sam Houston.
Three of the 5,500 soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines, military retirees and civilians who converged at the Rocco and Slagel DFACS — the latter named for a veteran of three wars, Sgt. 1st Class Wayne E. Slagel — might have been a little homesick. But they also were grateful to be here with their buddies. There was camaraderie — a brotherhood and sisterhood. It was something new and felt good.
“I know that Slagle, he was a sergeant first class, he was a war hero,” said Pvt. 1st Class Bryce Blair, 19, of Warren, Pa., near Pittsburgh. “I believe he
was one of only two (soldiers) to receive three of the combat medic badges.”
All of the soldiers in the Army’s Medical Center of Excellence were following in the footsteps of Slagel, a combat medic who served in World War II, the Korean conflict and the Vietnam War, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Richard “Louis” Rocco.
The Defense Department’s largest dining facility is named
for Slagel, who earned his first Combat Medic Badge and Bronze Star for valor in the Philippines during World War II. He received both awards yet again during the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge in the Korean War, where he treated soldiers under heavy fire. He volunteered to return to active duty and went to Vietnam in 1967.
Rocco was a Vietnam Medal of Honor recipient who helped others deal with PTSD in New
Mexico after 22 years in the Army. He returned to service at Fort Sam Houston during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
Rocco’s roots were humble. His stint as an Army medic started in a courtroom when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. A member of a Los Angeles street gang who stole food to feed his impoverished family, he cut a deal with a judge to win a suspended sentence for armed robbery and join the Army when he turned 17.
Rocco, who died in San Antonio on Halloween in 2002, enlisted in 1955.
If courtroom deals like Rocco’s are done these days for military recruits, they’re a rare exception.
Most of the kids now entering the armed services do so to learn a skill, obtain GI Bill benefits, launch a career or seek out some adventure. Fewer than two in every 10 recruits are eligible to join the military. But like young troops everywhere learning what it means to follow orders, rules and regulations, life in uniform is a big adjustment — even if they
come from military families.
They’re often alone for the first time, and Thanksgiving may mark the first major holiday where they’re away from homecooked meals and other trappings of civilian life.
“I recall my first Thanksgiving away from the Army was at Fort Benning, Georgia, where I had just graduated airborne school,” said MEDCOE’S command sergeant major, Vic Laragione. “It was nice going to the dining facility where I got all the food I was accustomed to eating on Thanksgiving. I don’t recall a lot of details, but I do remember getting to enjoy good food with a few of my battles buddies who were with me from AIT.”
He said years of spending holidays far from family would have been harder if not for one thing.
“I believe what made most of those separations bearable were the people that were right there with me. The Army becomes your family and through shared adversity and experiences, you create bonds that are often unbreakable,” said Laragione, 45, a San Diego, Calif., native who lived in San Antonio and Corpus Christi before joining the Army as a combat medic in 1995.
‘So excited for today’
At Joint Base San Antonio-lackland on the Southwest Side, a decadeslong tradition is still up and running.
Volunteers, many of them retired military personnel, took two or more Lackland trainees home for Thanksgiving dinner. While trainees have only one more week at Lackland, they welcomed the chance to get a break.
Trainees Anita Nwamkwo, 32, and Tammy Nguyen, 24, had been waiting since 7 a.m. with several hundred others to head out for a Thanksgiving meal. .
“I was so excited for today — I write the calendar here and I’m there marking off each day,” said Nguyen, who’s from Missouri. “Like, oh my God, we’re getting closer and closer.”
Their host, Jesus Gauna, arrived around 10 a.m. For years, the 71-year-old retired Marine and his wife, Patricia, have taken in military members at their home for Thanksgiving.
At the couple’s spacious, cozy house near Seaworld, the trainees were treated to homemade banana bread, Mexican cookies and coffee around a large dining-room table while Patricia prepared dinner ready and the World Cup played on a TV perched on a living-room table.
All three of the Gaunas’ children would be arriving with their own families later on.
“After my experience with Jesus, I get what it’s like for them,” said Patricia, 65. “You leave your family and friends behind, start a new life. I mean your military family becomes your new family. We wanted to give back.”
The vast majority of airmen with the 37th Training Wing stayed at Lackland and had breakfast, lunch and dinner at one of four dining facilities.
Only around 600 recruits in basic military training left the base, along with 50 trainees in a medical holding squadron and dozens more who were allowed to have Thanksgiving with parents or their guardians, said Joe Gangemi, a wing spokesman.
Perhaps another 50 airmen out of thousands in technical training school also went off the base, home of Air Force basic
training.
Typically, around 6,000 people are in various stages of basic military training at Lackland.
“We’re sending 50 tech schoolers down to the Knights of Columbus, the one that’s on Marbach,” Gangemi said.
A full menu
Thanksgiving Day meals were served at 12 dining halls at Lackland, Fort Sam, Joint Base San Antonio-randolph and
Camp Bullis, with an estimated 10,500 troops enjoying a traditional holiday meal that included 5,906 pounds of turkey, 4,922 pounds of roast beef, 4,266 pounds of ham, 2,953 pounds of shrimp and 3,609 pounds of potatoes.
The dining halls also served up 8,610 slices of pie and 3,780 slices of cake, said 502nd Air Base Wing spokesman Kristian Carter.
Everyone stayed on post at the Army Medical
Center of Excellence — this time by choice. COVID-19 had disrupted a tradition in place since Ronald Reagan was president, scratching Mission Thanksgiving on Fort Sam and Operation Home Cooking at Lackland, as well as the Raul Jimenez Thanksgiving Dinner.
‘Emotional holiday’
Home Cooking and the Jimenez dinner at the Convention Center downtown were held this year for the first time since 2019, but soldiers at MEDCOE opted to stay on post and participate in group events rather than home dinners.
“Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday for some,” said James Butler, food service contract monitor for Joint Base San Antonio’s 802nd Force Support Squadron. “Some of our service members are thousands of miles from home and this will possibly be the first time away from family and friends.
“The food service team takes great pride and considers it a solemn obligation to bring a little bit of home to our service members with a great meal and a little football,” he said. “It’s great feeling and sense of pride to see the delight in the service members faces.”
Pvt. 1st Class Bonnie Hill just finished most of her combat medic training and will soon move on from Fort Sam. She joined the Army a year ago and arrived here last March, so the post feels a lot like home already.
“I have been here so long that Fort Sam is home, so going in and eating Thanksgiving lunch with my buddies and my command team is just like eating at home,” said Hill, 22, of Stearns, Ky.
“While I miss my mom and my family, it’s pretty good to be here and see the camaraderie, and everybody getting together and being happy for at least an hour.”