11/11/2025
It’s still a strange feeling to not make a trip to see Dad on Veteran’s Day with him gone now, but I can still tell you about him. He’s the main reason I started this whole fake food adventure, making fake replicas of his favorite foods and sending them to him at the VA during COVID.
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I was born in San Diego in 1968 while my Dad was serving in Vietnam. He was exposed to Agent Orange, along with everyone else in Vietnam, and lived out his last seven years at the VA Hospital in Columbia as a result of the exposure and the lifelong health problems he’s endured since returning from that war. Like anyone else with a loved one in a nursing home, the pandemic was extra tough for us. We went over a year not being able to see him. He never complained, true to who he was, and always made the best of things. I’ve been missing him so much this week.
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My family has served in all branches of our military and served in every war, going all the way back to the Civil War. One of my grandpas fought in the Civil War for the North and was injured walking through a swamp. He fought, despite his disability, and years later trying to get home to Missouri after the war finally ended, he guarded the train overnight that held President Lincoln’s body in Springfield, Illinois.
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My other Grandpa’s Naval ship was hit by a kamikaze plane in WWII. We still have the pieces of the kamikaze wing. My Grandpa and two of his brothers survived WWII and Pearl Harbor. One uncle survived after being thrown in the water at Pearl Harbor (on the Nevada) and one cousin, C.L. Thompson, died on the Arizona. It was humbling to visit Pearl Harbor a few years ago and find his name on the wall of honor.
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More recently, my brother was a dentist in the Army in Budingen, Germany for three years and is now a dentist at taking care of the military personnel stationed there.
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We grew up respecting not just our flag, but respecting everything and everyone. We know the sacrifices and loss of serving this country firsthand. Thank you to all who serve and the families who love them!
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Semper fi! OOOOOOORAH!
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