The Oregon Air Guard’s First Thanksgiving

Creative cover of the Thanksgiving Day 1941 menu brochure for Gray Army Airfield, at Fort Lewis, Washington. (Les Donis Collection, 142nd Wing History Archive)

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The Oregon Air Guard’s First Thanksgiving

Roster for the 123rd Observation Squadron on Thanksgiving Day, 1941, page 2 of 2, shows the names of the enlisted men then assigned to the squadron. Among the Privates First Class (PFC), John L. Donis saved the brochure this picture was made from. PFC Thad C. Williams became an A-20 Havoc pilot and a combat casualty in Europe on March 13, 1945. PFC Gerald E. Wilson became a B-17 flight engineer and the squadron’s first Prisoner of War, in Germany on March 4, 1944. Privates Bruce C. Green and Leonard W. Mayer were lost aboard the SS Paul Hamilton when it was sunk with all hands by a German aircraft in the Mediterranean Sea on April 20, 1944. Private Jack W. Shaylor was lost in a postwar A-26 Invader aircraft mishap on April 9, 1948. Private Fred H. Hill was the first “new” enlisted member to join the squadron after activation, an Oregon Army Guardsman who transferred from the Infantry into the Air Corps. Private Fred C. Parish became the last known living charter member of the squadron - he passed away in La Grande, Oregon on July 7, 2019. (Les Donis Collection, 142nd Wing History Archive)

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The Oregon Air Guard’s First Thanksgiving

Roster for the 123rd Observation Squadron on Thanksgiving Day, 1941, page 1 of 2, shows the names of the officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) assigned to the squadron at the time. Major G. Robert Dodson, was the squadron’s first commander and the “founding father” of the Oregon Air National Guard. The first casualties of the 123rd were Second Lieutenants Ray (Rudy) J. Binder and Charles P. Clark, lost on March 20, 1942 in an O-49 Vigilant aircraft mishap at Hoquiam, Washington. Staff Sergeant Albert R. Miller was lost aboard the SS Paul Hamilton when it was sunk with all hands by a German aircraft in the Mediterranean Sea on April 20, 1944. (Les Donis Collection, 142nd Wing History Archive)

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The Oregon Air Guard’s First Thanksgiving

Menu for Thanksgiving Day, 1941 at Gray Army Airfield, Fort Lewis, Washington. It featured 20 different items, chief of which was the traditional turkey which squadron personnel enjoyed on their first Thanksgiving in uniform. (Les Donis Collection, 142nd Wing History Archive)

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The Oregon Air Guard’s First Thanksgiving

Officers and men of Oregon’s first military aviation unit, the 123rd Observation Squadron, assemble for a squadron picture in September, 1941 at Swan Island Municipal Airport, Portland, Oregon. At the time the squadron had just been inducted into federal service, and soon moved up to Gray Army Airfield, Fort Lewis, Washington where the members experienced their first Thanksgiving in uniform just two months later. Nearest the camera in front, from left to right are Major G. Robert Dodson, Commanding Officer, Major Carlisle I. Ferris, Jr., Army Air Corps Advisor (the father of famous aviation artist Keith Ferris) and Captain Wallace J. O’Daniels. The two aircraft were the squadron’s first aircraft, a Douglas O-46A on the left and North American BC-1A on the right. (142nd Wing History Archive)

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The Oregon Air Guard’s First Thanksgiving

Published Nov. 23, 2022
By Lt Col Terrence G. Popravak, Jr., USAF (Retired)
142nd Wing / Historian's Office

PORTLAND, Ore. --

Happy Thanksgiving! The first Thanksgiving Day celebrated by Oregon’s first military aviation unit, the 123rd Observation Squadron (today’s 123rd Fighter Squadron) was on Thursday, November 27, 1942. It was observed at Gray Army Airfield at Fort Lewis, Washington two months after the squadron’s arrival at Gray Field. The 123rd was inducted into federal service at Swan Island Municipal Airport, Portland, Oregon on September 15, 1941 with a strength of eight officers and 109 enlisted men. It completed movement to Gray Field, the squadron’s designated unit training center, on September 25, 1941.

It was a first not only for the 123rd Observation Squadron, but in a sense for the nation as well. Thanksgiving Day, 1941 formally established the annual celebration on the fourth Thursday of November. This was a result of some controversy.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt caused a stir when he deviated from the tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November. He proclaimed it a week earlier, thinking it would enable retail sales for Christmas to commence earlier and help the nation’s economy during the Great Depression. But many citizens objected to Roosevelt’s changing the traditional day of celebration, some derisively calling it “Franksgiving.”

The unhappy sentiments were so strong that in 1941, Congress sent a bill to the president to set Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday in November. President Roosevelt admitted his error and signed the bill on November 26, 1941, and the fourth Thursday was the very next day, November 27, 1941. And thus, the men of the 123rd Observation Squadron celebrated their first Thanksgiving on the first “lawfully-established” Thanksgiving Day, 1941, enjoying a feast featuring 20 different menu items.

Just ten days later, on Sunday, December 7, 1941 the squadron and the United States were thrust into the Second World War. At least six of the men on the squadron roster that first Thanksgiving were lost during the war; another was lost early in the postwar period. We can be grateful for their service and ultimate sacrifice for our community, state and nation. It would be another five years until the squadron was back in the Pacific Northwest to celebrate another Thanksgiving in peacetime.