_To enable a forward observer to adjust artillery fire, these 3d
Defense Battalion Marines used a jury-rigged hoist to lift him to the
top of a banyan tree._]
There was one final flourish. It had been, after all, Thanksgiving Day,
and a tradition had to be observed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had
decreed that all servicemen should get turkey--one way or another. Out
there on the line the men got it by “the other.” Yet, few Marines of
that era would give the Old Corps bad marks for hot chow. If they could
get it to the frontline troops, they would. A Marine recalled, “The
carrying parties did get the turkey to them. Nature won, though, the
turkey had spoiled.” Another man was watching the big birds imbedded
in rice in five gallon containers, “much like home except for baseball
and apple pie.” For some, however, just before the turkey was served,
the word came down, “Prepare to move out!” Those men got their turkey
and ate it on the trail ... on the way to a new engagement, Hand
Grenade Hill.
[Illustration: