A Thanksgiving Apart: A Century of Overseas Service for Georgia’s Citizen Soldiers and Airmen

By Maj. William Carraway
Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

Soldiers of Company F, 2nd Infantry Regiment Georgia Guard eat Sniders 
Pork and Beans from the can within site of the Mexican Border while
 mobilized in 1916. Georgia Guard Archives

As families in Georgia sit down for Thanksgiving dinner this year, nearly 700 Georgia Guardsmen will observe Thanksgiving away from their families. Among those currently deployed are aviators of the Georgia Army National Guard’s Marietta-based 1^st Battalion 171^st Aviation Regiment and Airmen of the Georgia Air National Guard’s Warner Robins and Savannah-based 116^th Air Control Wing and 165^th Airlift Wing. These Soldiers and Airmen are the latest to experience the sacrifice and separation of a century of overseas service for the Georgia National Guard.


World War I

In the summer of 1916, the Georgia National Guard was called to active service along with other National Guard states to provide security along the Mexican Border. Among the 3,600 of Georgia’s Citizen Soldiers mobilized was Sgt. Robert Gober Burton of the Monroe-based Company H, 2^nd Georgia Infantry Regiment. The Guardsmen enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast, but as Burton wrote on December 1, 1916, Thanksgiving Day was memorable not for dinner, but for duty.

Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers of the Macon-based 2^nd Georgia Infantry Regiment on duty on the border on Thanksgiving Day 1916. The Soldiers are George Feeker, Robert Gober Burton, E. J. Moore and Jim Mathews. Georgia Guard Archives

“We certainly had a Thanksgiving dinner today. We missed ours Thursday but made up for it Friday. We missed it because we were on outpost duty. We had all the things that go with a Thanksgiving dinner: chicken, dressing, cranberries and everything…

Your devoted son,

Gober

The Georgia Guard returned from border duty in the spring of 1917. By then, the United States had declared war on Germany. Presently, Burton and the newly formed 151^st Machine Gun Battalion would be dispatched for overseas service in October 1917. By Thanksgiving Day, Burton and the 151^st MGB were in Uruffe France. Writing the day before Thanksgiving, Burton requested comforts from home.

Somewhere in France

November 28, 1917

My dearest mama,

I wrote you to send me something for Christmas. Well don’t forget to send me a big fruitcake. The amount that you can send is limited but just send another box.

By all means, send me some chewing tobacco. Some toilet articles, soap, shaving soap, talcum powder, and don’t send over one towel at a time.

Don’t you worry about me for a minute for I am getting along just as fine as possible

Your devoted son,

Gober

For the next 12 months, Burton the 151^st endured unspeakable conditions along the western front until the Armistice of November 11, 1918 ended the war. Writing home to his mother the day after Thanksgiving 1918, Sgt. Burton gave voice to the incredulity of a generation that the war was finally over.

Septfontaine Luxemburg

Nov 29, 1918

My dearest mother,

It has certainly been a busy year for me. It has also been rather full of thrills and adventure.

Well mother dear, it seems that it won’t be long till we are back in the dear old U.S.A and home. Can it be possible that the war is over? I can hardly believe it. But the Germans have given up their fleet, the fleet that was to dominate the seas. They are turning over their big guns and all the material asked for so it must be so. God has certainly been good to me. I have been blessed.

Well mother dearest, I can’t think of anything else to write tonight.

As ever, your devoted son,

Gober

Sgt. R.G. Burton

Co. A. 151 M.G.Bn.

World War II

Burton returned home in 1919 along with his fellow Soldiers of the Georgia National Guard. A generation would pass before the Georgia Guard was again called to mobilize for overseas service. In September 1940, nearly 5,200 Georgia Guard Soldiers were brought to active duty due to events in Europe. Soldiers of the 118^th Field Artillery and 121^st Infantry Regiment would spend Thanksgiving 1940 at Fort Jackson, S.C. conducting initial training. Thanksgiving of 1941 would find Soldiers of the Georgia Guard participating in the Carolina Maneuvers while aviators of the 128^th Observation Squadron trained at Lawson Field at Fort Benning.

Corporal Jimmie Smallwood from Ola, Ga., and Pfc. Gordon Mitchell, 
of the Georgia Army National Guard’s Battery A, 945th Field 
Artillery Battalion, 4^th Armored Division, set up their tent on 
the snowy ground of Luxembourg. National Archives

As families gathered around the table for Thanksgiving in 1942, Georgia Guard Artillery units were participating in the Louisiana Maneuvers while other units trained at Camp Blanding. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Theater, the anti-aircraft guns of the Georgia Army National Guard’s 101^st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion repelled Japanese bombing runs on Papua New Guinea. The 101^st continued to defend airspace over Papua New Guinea in 1943 while units bound for the European Theater of Operations continued training. 


By Thanksgiving Day, 1944, seven battalions of Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers were fighting in Europe. The 179^th Field Artillery Battalion was supporting operations near Bidestroff and Loudrefing, France while Soldiers of the 118^th Field Artillery Regiment were stationed near Langweiler, Germany. The guns of the 230^th Field Artillery Regiment were in action near Langendorf and Lohn while the 945^th Field Artillery supported attacks by the 26^th Infantry and 4^th Armored Divisions in the vicinity of Dieuve, France during the Loraine Offensive. Meanwhile, Georgia Guard aviators of the former 128^th Observation Squadron flew missions out of Sterparone, Italy with the 483^rd Bombardment Group.


Korean War

With the outbreak of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, the Georgia Army National Guard’s 108^th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Brigade was activated. The Soldiers spent Thanksgiving of 1950 at Fort Bliss Texas before being dispatched to locations from Chicago to Philadelphia where they provided anti-aircraft cover to American industrial centers.

An F-84 Thunderjet of the Georgia Air National Guard’s 158^th Fighter Squadron is lifted onto the deck of the Escort Carrier Sitkoh Bay preparatory to sailing to Japan to assist in the United Nations’ air war against communist forces in Korea. Georgia Guard Archives

Georgia Air National Guard aviators were mobilized in 1950 including the Marietta-based 128^th Fighter Squadron. In 1951, the Savannah-based 158^th Fighter Squadron was dispatched to Japan aboard the U.S.S. Sitkoh Bay. The 158^th flew combat missions in the skies over Korea before returning to the United States in 1952.

Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers of the Bainbridge-based Tank Company, 121st Infantry Regiment, 48^th Infantry Division prepare a meal of turkey and fresh vegetables at their mess tent at Camp Stewart in 1955. Georgia Guard Archives

Desert Shield/Desert Storm

Nearly 40 years would pass before Georgia’s Citizen Soldiers were again called to overseas service. Following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, more than 500 Georgia Guardsmen of the 190^th Military Police Company, 1148^th Transportation Company and 165^th Heavy Maintenance Company were mobilized to Saudi Arabia where they experienced Thanksgiving in a foreign country. By the end of 1990, nearly 5,300 Georgia Guardsmen had been mobilized.

Georgia National Guard Airmen, from the 165th Airlift Wing, conduct an airdrop of American, Italian, French, and Dutch 
paratroopers over Pisa, Italy, on Thanksgiving Day in 2016. Georgia National Guard photo by 116th Airlift Wing

Iraq and Afghanistan

Since September 11, 2001, more than 21,000 Georgia Guard Soldiers and Airmen have

Ga. ARNG Soldiers of the 1-171 Aviation Regiment observe

Thanksgiving 2019 in Kosovo. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Lee

Lane

deployed overseas. On Thanksgiving Day 2019, Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers of the 1st Battalion 171st Aviation Regiment received Thanksgiving lunch served by Col. Dwayne Wilson, chief of staff of the Ga. ARNG and former commander of the 1-171st. Joining in the Thanksgiving meal were Lt. Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, commander of U.S. Army Europe as well as Col. Jason Fryman and Command Sgt. Major Jeff Earhart, command team of the Marietta-based 78th Aviation Troop Command. 

The next Ga. ARNG unit to deploy, the Marietta-based 248th Medical Company departed November 30 in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.