Brighton man cooks Christmas meal in Afghanistan

Soldiers serving in a war zone worry about their safety, the safety of their comrades and the family they have back home. Celebrating holidays such as Christmas is a luxury they cannot afford. John DeVore of Brighton was a mess sergeant in Afghanistan and he sought to change that, making a Christmas dinner his soldiers would never forget.

DeVore was stationed at a base in southeastern Afghanistan called COP Herrera, located in Paktia Province. Last year, DeVore stayed up for nearly three straight days to decorate the mess hall and cook meals for 300 soldiers and personnel. Most amazing of all was that DeVore cooked the meals by himself.

?We had special eggnog, shrimp cocktails and sparkling wine,? DeVore said. ?I prepared mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade yams, stuffing and numerous desserts such as pies and cakes. The soldiers remarked that they felt like they were back home because they were treated so well. Caring for these soldiers was the most important mission in my life. I didn?t care about anything else that was going on.?

DeVore also spent considerable time decorating the mess hall. He spent four days carving three ice sculptures such as an eagle and a swan that were a few feet high. He put up banners which read ?Seasons Greetings? and he decorated the tables with Christmas-themed tablecloths. On each placemat he put a candy cane and a ?Thank you? card from a local person back home.

?The soldiers knew they were appreciated by the community,? he said. ?Most of the cards came from the Washington area and the American Legion Riders.?

Some of the soldiers? wives baked cookies which they sent to the base for Christmas.

Shortly after eating their Christmas meal, a group of soldiers went around to the barracks and sang Christmas carols. John Edwards, a soldier from Washington, even dressed as Santa Claus.

?To hear them sing those carols was really great,? DeVore said.

DeVore said that after meals he usually disappeared in order to catch up on sleep. He said he routinely worked 18 hours a day in Afghanistan. On Christmas, he hung around with the soldiers after the meal, who told him how much they appreciated his cooking.

DeVore also prepared big meals for the Super Bowl and for Memorial Day. For the Super Bowl, DeVore set up a big-screen television in the dining facility and made chicken nuggets, popcorn, hot wings, pizza balls and many other snacks for the troops. On Memorial Day, he served a modest continental breakfast which upset some of the members in the unit.

?I said, ?If you don?t like it, just head out the door,?? DeVore said. ?What they didn?t know was that two hours later I would be cooking steaks outside on the grill.?

Despite being the cook and having lots of tasty food in his surroundings, DeVore worked so much that he lost 76 pounds during his deployment.

?I usually got two hours of sleep per night because I was cooking for 18 hours during the day,? he said. ?The food was very healthy and your metabolism is different at high altitudes. I went from 248 pounds down to 172. Everyone was losing weight, and it wasn?t because they were sick from the food. Everyone was constantly busy.?

The soldiers went on patrols at different times of the day and thus did not always eat meals at regular intervals.

?If they came back from a mission late at night where they had been in a firefight, they had a hot meal waiting for them,? he said. ?I was there to make sure they were fed.?

Soda pop and energy drinks were very popular among the troops. DeVore said they were especially fond of green apple juice, which he had trouble keeping on the shelf.   

DeVore was not allowed to serve alcoholic beverages with his meals because local Afghans worked on the base who considered drinking alcohol a serious sin. He said the Afghans also considered eating pork a sin, which is why he had to clearly label his dishes with pork.