Off Beat: Army’s vintage menus reflect Christmas for those far from home

Seventy-five yules ago, the U.S. military was worried about a possible Japanese attack on the American mainland. As a result, about 50 soldiers based at Vancouver Barracks were able to take a break from frantically preparing coastal defenses and enjoy a family Christmas dinner.

A Grays Harbor family welcomed those troops for the last homestyle holiday meal some of those men were going to enjoy for a while. And it was a great meal, according to the menu dated Dec. 25, 1941.

It’s one of several U.S. Army holiday menus you can still find that reflect Christmas traditions at Vancouver Barracks since the early 1900s. Together, their covers provide a gallery of Americana art, reflecting themes of patriotism, military valor and holiday traditions. The museum facility at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site has several examples.

The 1941 menu lacks those classic art stylings, as The Columbian reported in a 2015 holiday story. The menu cover for Company E, 18th Engineers, is simple red construction paper, stamped with images in gold-colored and black ink. But it comes with a great story, reflecting life in Washington just 18 days after Pearl Harbor.

Hugh Thomas heard the story from his late wife Janet, who grew up near Ocosta, a small town near Grays Harbor.

After Pearl Harbor, Company E was sent to work on an old coastal artillery battery, in case Japanese forces were planning to attack the Washington coast. Company E camped in an area next to Janet’s house.Her father, Harvey Foster, who owned a logging company, let the Army officers write their reports in his basement office. Soldiers took showers in their bathroom. And the Fosters’ home is where they had Christmas dinner.

The family paid a price for their hospitality. With all those men using the bathroom and shower, “it overtaxed the septic tank,” Thomas said. But being engineers, they fixed it.

Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.