Members of the 94th Military Police battalion serve Thanksgiving dinner Thursday at the Tower View Inn mess hall at Camp Coiner in Seoul. Pictured are, left to right: Command Sgt. Maj. Norwood L. Patterson, Maj. Detrick L. Briscoe, Sgt. Maj. Patrick Dawson and 1st Sgt. Gerald Stegemeir. (Teri Weaver / S&S)
CAMP COINER, South Korea — Lobster tails, king crab claws, strip steaks and fried rice: It might not be mom’s cooking, but soldiers and workers in this corner of Seoul’s Yongsan Garrison weren’t shy about loading up their plates despite being away from home on Thanksgiving.
“I eat with my eyes,” said Spc. Reinhardt “Wally” Weilbacher, a 23-year-old from Micronesia who’s with the 17th Aviation Brigade. He was staring at an empty lobster shell and a bowl full of boiled shrimp that he couldn’t finish. He said the last time he was with family for Thanksgiving was in 1999.
“I got used to it,” he said of the years of separation.
“I got my own group of friends and family. He’s my grandfather,” Weilbacher joked as he looked up at 1st Sgt. Rodney Adams. The sergeant, who is from Orangeburg, S.C., and also with the 17th Aviation Brigade, stifled a smile.
“I’m going to let that go because you’re being interviewed,” Adams quipped.
Of course, the Tower View Inn dining hall had all the usual trimmings of turkey, potatoes (candied or mashed), dressings (cornbread or savory), greens, peas, corn on the cob and macaroni and cheese. The carved roast beef sat in between the salad bar and the dessert case.
In the kitchen, officers dressed in class blues took orders from the diners.
“It’s an Army tradition,” said Capt. Allan Goode of the 201st Signal Company with the 1st Signal Brigade. “Commanders come in and serve food and spend time with [the soldiers] while they’re away from their families.”
Goode, from Austin, Texas, oversees more than 200 soldiers and civilians in his company, which oversees the computer system for all of Area II, with 11,000 users. “That keeps us busy,” he said.
On Thursday, offering up two kinds of bread stuffings kept the captain busy. He and his company served from 12:15 p.m. to 12:30 p.m., part of a rotation that allows officers from several companies the chance to serve.
Back in the dining room, Pfc. Marcus Burriss had shelled out $5.40 for his Thanksgiving meal but couldn’t quite finish both the steak and the turkey. Burriss, 19, of Anderson, S.C., had come over to the Tower View on his lunch break from his work at 8th Army Personnel Command.
Burriss has been in South Korea “one year and eight days,” he said, prompting laughter from Sgt. James Quashie, 47, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Spc. Salvador Sanchez of Fort Stockton, Texas.
Last year, Quashie was lucky enough to be with family during Thanksgiving. This year, he said, he was happy with the break from work and with the selections from the dining hall. “The choices for us were more than adequate,” he said.
