American military personnel across Iraq paused for Thanksgiving observances on 25 November 2004, sharing holiday meals even as fighting continued around them. In Fallujah, recently retaken from insurgents, soldiers ate steak and mashed potatoes at a converted youth center while others waited in line to connect via live television with relatives back home.
At Baghdad's Camp Falcon, kitchen crews fed 3,000 personnel, preparing over 1,500 pounds of turkey and nearly 5,000 pies, with prizes drawn for televisions and bicycles. In Mosul, a festive dining hall at Forward Operating Base Marez offered turkey, glazed ham, and multiple desserts to troops from the Army's Stryker Brigade. South of Baghdad, thousands of marines were engaged in Operation Plymouth Rock, an anti-insurgent sweep conducted on the holiday itself.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in November 2004, in its own words.