Groton — In July, they began thinking about Thanksgiving.

What needs to be taken care of leading up to the holiday? What businesses should they contact? How would they set up the room?

Since 2001, the U.S. Submarine Veterans Groton Base has served an annual Thanksgiving feast to a growing number of sailors, their families and even some members of the community.   

Last year, the event fed more than 1,000 people between those who came in to eat and deliveries. Already this year, the Subvets have received about 1,000 requests for take-out meals.

By the middle of last week, 60 turkeys — about half donated by Groton Utilities and the other half donated by individuals — sat in a chill box on the second floor of the clubhouse. Another 100, donated by the Jason Lantieri Foundation, arrived on Sunday.

As Thanksgiving Day approaches, more and more food, much of it donated, piles in. The Subvets have received $17,000 in donations toward the annual feast. Every local veteran organization contributes in some way to the feast, the Subvets say, as do many businesses in the area.

Cooks at the food galley at the Naval Submarine Base do much of the preparation and cooking for the meal. They will spend all day Wednesday cooking about half of the turkeys and preparing all of the sides, everything from green beans to yams. The remaining turkeys will be deep fried in nine deep fryers that will line a wall outside of the clubhouse on Thanksgiving Day.

By Wednesday night, preparation will be in full swing; volunteers will begin to set up and start carving the turkeys.

On Thanksgiving Day, the first floor of the base's clubhouse will be transformed into a scene of organized chaos, as volunteers call it. Deep-fried turkeys in pans will fly around the room. Admirals will sit across from sailors, often unbeknownst to the sailors. Volunteers will call out for more people to be seated.

By now, organizers have the day down to a science.

They seat about 70 people at a time with four or five different seatings throughout the day. Each person is given a color-coded card and waits on the second floor to be seated.

At a recent event, base commander Al Kinsall and Jeff Walsh, who is the lead coordinator for this year's event, asked sailors from the Submarine School, frequent guests at the annual feast, where they will be this year for Thanksgiving. The sailors will be at the clubhouse.

"Where else would we go?" the sailors told the men.

j.bergman@theday.com

Twittter: @JuliaSBergman