PUMPKIN PIE FOR THANKSGIVING

The war had ended in July of 1953 and we had moved back south of the 38th parallel into South Korea. It had taken over a month but we were finally settled not too far north of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and just inside the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Korea. So we had graduated from sandbag bunkers into tents and now, finally, into the little city of Quonset huts which made up the 5th Regimental Combat Teams’s winter quarters. Earlier that summer someone in the Regimental Personnel Department had come across my record and discovered that I had some college education and was an expert typist. And lo, the good angels blessed me and I was pulled off the front line and made Company Clerk of the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the Regiment. It was a position of some responsibility and one which I loved and in which I think I did a pretty good job.

One of my chores was to take the food supply orders from the Company Mess Sergeant and forward them on through channels to Army to be filled. Our Mess Sergeant was a kind, thoughtful, career Army man by the name of Lauffer. I don’t think this man ever slept. He always had a kettle of hot coffee brewing and his meals were on time and delicious whether we were on the move or in camp for a few days and whether eaten in a bunker, tent or off our mess kits in the field. He was truly remarkable.

Starting in late summer, Sgt. Lauffer began ordering No. 10 (large) cans of sweet potatoes. I even called this to his attention and he said it was always good to have them as a ‘back up.’ What I didn’t know was they he had his wife send him a great deal of pumpkin flavoring. So, lo and behold, the one hundred-twenty or so men in Hq&Hq Company had pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dessert. Never mind that the pies were cleverly disguised sweet potatoes - the pies looked and tasted like pumpkin and that was all that mattered. It was a Thanksgiving that I have always remembered. The war was over, I was due to rotate back home in two and a half months and I had pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner. Pumpkin pie has never tasted better to me than those served on a cold day in Korea in 1953. And this due to the kind thoughtfulness of an Army mess sergeant. Sgt. Lauffer, I will never forget you.