Thanksgivings in Iraq and Afghanistan

A soldier browses the Thanksgiving Day dinner menu at the Army base in Tarmiya, north of Baghdad.  (Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP /Getty Images)

Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Dentz stands on guard duty in Helmand province, Afghanistan. “Thanksgiving? It’s Thanksgiving?” he asked. “I didn’t know that. I don’t even know what day of the week it is.”  (Musadeq Sadeq / Associated Press)

Soldiers of the Able Troop 3-71 Cavalry Squadron await Thanksgiving dinner at the Joint Combat Operations Post in the Baraki Barak district of Afghanistan.  (Dario Lopez-Mills / Associated Press)

Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, play with Rexo, a bomb-sniffing dog, before the start of a routine patrol in Baghdad’s Adhamiya district.  (Petros Giannakouris / Associated Press)

A U.S. Army soldier looks at caged turkeys on display outside the dining hall, which put on a lavish Thanksgiving spread, at Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Iraq on Thursday.  (Maya Alleruzzo / Associated Press)

U.S. Army Sgt. Jason Gerber, 33, from Berlin, Pa., a cook with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, carries cooked turkeys for carving in preparation for Thanksgiving at a combat outpost in Baqouba, Iraq on Thursday.  (Maya Alleruzzo / Associated Press)

U.S. Army Cpl. Alexander Lewis, 21, from Las Vegas, Nev. , foreground, and Spc. Ryan Karandzieff, 24, from St. Louis, Mo. with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, eat Thanksgiving dinner at a combat outpost in Baqouba, , Iraq.   (Maya Alleruzzo / Associated Press)

U.S. Army soldiers from 1-506 Infantry Division play football on Thanksgiving at their forward operating base in Paktika province along the Afghan-Pakistan border.  (David Furst / AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. Army soldiers from 1-506 Infantry Division enjoy a Thanksgiving meal at their forward operating base in Paktika province along the Afghan-Pakistan border on Thursday.  (David Furst / AFP/Getty Images)

A U.S. Army chaplain prays before a special Thanksgiving meal is served for troops in the dining hall at the US military forward operating base Camp Salerno on Thursday in the south eastern province of Khowst, Afghanistan.  (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

U.S. Army senior officers serve up the food to military personnel in the dining hall to celebrate Thanksgiving Day at Camp Salerno in the south eastern province of Khowst, Afghanistan.   (Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)

U.S. soldiers celebrate Thanksgiving Day at a base in Manas, Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan is a major stop-off point for U.S. operations into Afghanistan.   (Vyacheslav Oseledko AFP/Getty Images)

Soldiers line up for food served by contracted workers, mostly from south Asia, at the dining facility of Forward Operating Base Rustamiyah the day before Thanksgiving in Baghdad.  (Chris Hondros / Getty Images)