Breaking bread with Afghans for Thanksgiving

Most of the 97,000 service-members in Afghanistan enjoyed a traditional holiday dinner, and a respite from the battlefield.

CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark reports that one Army unit in southeastern Paktika province, enjoyed some extra guests at the table this year.

It's an Army tradition: Officers like Captain Demarius Thomas serve up Thanksgiving dinner to the enlisted men. This year, however, Captain Thomas decided to try something different.

"As far as I know (this is the first time Afghan and American troops held Thanksgiving together). We wanted to make a big impact so we have half Afghan entrees and we have half U.S. entrees," Thomas said.

American soldiers have been fighting the insurgents alongside their Afghan counterparts in Paktika province for months now. The main mission is to block the mountainous routes the militants use to smuggle arms and launch attacks.

Captain Thomas wanted them to share a holiday meal to strengthen the bonds between them and forge a closer relationship since the U.S will hand over security to Afghan forces in 2 years.

"I think that is the way ahead. We need to get more police presence in those places," Thomas said.

These soldiers just came back from a 5-day mission where they were flushing the Taliban out of a nearby safe haven.

This was the first Thanksgiving for Rayki, an Afghan translator.

"There is a lot of people who fight for Afghanistan. We really appreciate it," Rayki said.

After a tiring mission, the soldiers say they were grateful to come back to good cooking. But they have another reason to give thanks -- here at this base in the heart of insurgent territory, they have not lost any men, five months into their year-long deployment.