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Fighting terror notebook
Compiled from Times wires Thanksgiving just another day in the warBAGRAM, Afghanistan -- First Sgt. Betty Jones will celebrate Thanksgiving away from her family for the first time in 20 years. She admits celebration might be too generous a description: At Bagram Air Base, headquarters of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, she and the other members of the Cincinnati-based 377th Military Police Co. will have to settle for chow hall turkey and potatoes, and maybe a phone call home. Many of the 8,000 U.S. troops at Bagram take the same attitude they have on other major holidays: It's just another day in a long war. "We're dealing with it, trying to make the best of it," says Spc. John Wailes, 21, of Indianapolis. Three turkeys and 50 people is the norm at his family's Thanksgiving. Turkey isn't the only thing 2nd Lt. Chris Collins will be missing. His wife is due to give birth any day. "You try to look at the overall good, what we're doing here. Even though we'll be missing those memories, it doesn't overshadow what we're doing here," says Collins, 27, of Norwood, Ohio, near Cincinnati. "It's one day closer to going home." The chow halls at Bagram will be open this afternoon and evening, serving the usual -- and some unusual -- Thanksgiving fare: processed turkey roll, nonalcoholic beer and wine, corn on the cob, roast beef, shrimp cocktail and egg nog. Troops at Bagram are more used to canned fruit and vegetables and weak coffee. Officers will serve enlisted men throughout the day. U.S. television networks with crews at the base will broadcast taped and live greetings from soldiers to their families in the United States. Smallpox vaccinations may be urged for someWASHINGTON -- President Bush is expected to urge smallpox vaccinations for 500,000 emergency workers most likely to be exposed to the virus in a bioterror attack and order 500,000 military personnel to get the shots, White House officials said Wednesday. Eventually, the vaccine will be available to all Americans, though the government will probably not encourage them to get it, senior officials told the Associated Press. Bush does not plan to announce his policy for at least a week, and details could change, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
