President Joe Biden serves food to military families during a “Friends Day” celebration in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday at Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, NC, on May 21. November 2022.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
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President Joe Biden serves food to military families during a “Friends Day” celebration in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday at Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, NC, on May 21. November 2022.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the Marines and sailors aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina on Monday night to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
“The American people don’t know the sacrifices you’re making,” the president said before serving dinner to the soldiers. “One percent of you represent 99% of the public; you’re all volunteers, you’re all just showing up and you’re always there.”
About 400 service members and their families sat down to dinner with the Bidens for a meal – turkey and ham with accompaniments including stuffing and mashed potatoes – by celebrity chefs Robert Irvine and Thuy. Army food service prepared.
Earlier in the day, President pardons two North Carolina hybrid turkeys on the South Lawn as part of a decades-long Thanksgiving tradition of the White House.
Chefs Robert Irvine and Lance Cpl. Oscar Aguilar, with food service, 2nd Amphibious Support Battalion, prepares mashed potatoes for a Feast of Friends dinner aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, NC, on Nov. year 2022.
Staff Sergeant Mark Morrow/Marine Air Station Cherry Point
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Staff Sergeant Mark Morrow/Marine Air Station Cherry Point
Chefs Robert Irvine and Lance Cpl. Oscar Aguilar, with food service, 2nd Amphibious Support Battalion, prepares mashed potatoes for a Feast of Friends dinner aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, NC, on Nov. year 2022.
Staff Sergeant Mark Morrow/Marine Air Station Cherry Point
Dinner in partnership with the White House Force Link Initiative, a program to support military members and their families. Major Joshua Schubert told NPR that most of the Marines and sailors were junior enlisted members serving under 2rank Marine Expeditionary Force and made the trip from Marine Base Camp Lejeune.
The first lady told attendees that she and the president know what it’s like to be away from family during the holidays.
The first lady said: “We are a military family. My dad is in the Navy; our son is in the Army. So we really know what it feels like to be away from home on Thanksgiving. any”. “So even though you’re away from your family at home and in your home state, we know you’re here with your family here, because the military is family.”
There is a long history of presidents visiting with the military on Thanksgiving. previous NovemberBiden went to Fort Bragg, NC, for an early Thanksgiving meal with soldiers and families.
Former President Donald Trump spent Thanksgiving 2019 visiting foreign troops in Afghanistan, but in 2020. according to Reutersmade a video call to service members from the White House in lieu of an in-person visit.
