FORT HOOD (November 24, 2009)—Thanksgiving at Fort Hood means plenty of planning, long hours of work and attention to detail, making sure everything is just right in the post’s dining halls for soldiers and their families.

It’s a special day, on which officers and senior noncommissioned officers don their dress blues to serve meals to soldiers and Fort Hood families.

But it’s not just about the food.

An evaluation team will visit each of the post’s dining facilities to check out the ambience, the menu and the personnel.

Fort Hood’s brigades are competing for a coveted trophy that the post’s commander, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, will present to the dining hall whose food, theme and decorations are deemed the best.

Soldiers at each of the post’s dining facilities have invested talent, time and energy in coming up with original decorations, ice sculptures and edible displays.

Last year’s winning dining hall featured horses and a chuck wagon at the entrance, complete with a wagon-master and soldiers in Revolution- and Civil War-era uniforms.

On the other side of the hall, soldiers recreated a 1950s-era Mobile Army Surgical Hospital that included a Jeep and soldiers wearing Korean War-era uniforms.

One cook created a giant turkey made of salt dough.