It is said the average doughboy actually gained weight as he entered the service.  Perhaps this Thanksgiving menu for the 70th U.S. Infantry at Camp Funston (Fort Riley) proves the point.

http://missourioverthere.org/explore/collections/bross-howard-papers/thanksgiving-menu-from-camp-funston-november-28-1918/

There doesn’t seem to be too many additions to items we would consider part of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  Needless to say, it would appear their dinner was quite plentiful.

The prayer or blessing on the second page still seems appropriate:  “Lord God of Host, / Be With Us Yet / Lest we Forget / Lest we Forget.”

 

Blair Tarr is the Museum Curator of the Kansas State Historical Society. He oversees the three-dimensional collections of the Society, but has special interests in the Civil War, Wichita-made Valentine diners, and Leavenworth's Abernathy Furniture. In the last few years he has also done a lot of cramming on The Great War. He is a past president of the Kansas Museums Association and the Civil War Round Tables of both Kansas City and Eastern Kansas. He is currently a board member of the Heritage League of Greater Kansas City.