Game 13 – Warrior Wishes Come True Thanks To Our Friends In San Francisco!
My dad arrived in Chicago on an overnight $1 Megabus early Tuesday morning after making Warrior Wishes come true at the Vikings Monday night game.
Immediately upon his arrival home, he made his way to the hospital to meet his granddaughter for the first time.
Quinn was born Tuesday at 3:08pm. Xander was super excited to meet his little sister!
Thankfully my dad was home because we needed help watching Xander Tuesday night while Melissa & the baby were still in the hospital. Needless to say, Xander enjoyed his time with G-Pa!
Unfortunately his time home was short lived. On Wednesday night, my dad was invited to the Edgewater Veterans meeting to accept a check from them for their recent annual Cookout Fundraiser at Sam’s Club . And to give you an idea of how tight our schedule is lately, my dad actually asked the Edgewater Vets if the Toppen family (Gold Star mom & sister of Army PFC Aaron Toppen) could also come and present check to us for their recent Toppen Motorcycle Run. THANK YOU to both, and to Tom for letting Toppen’s come to their meeting.
Board Members Don Gaylord and Mark Toppel also attended the meeting. Immediately following the meeting, Mark drove my dad to the airport to catch his 10:50pm flight to San Francisco.
My dad arrived in San Francisco at 2:30am. The San Francisco airport is one of his favorite airports in the country because in his words, “they have the most comfortable couches.”
Upon his arrival, he got a few hours of rest on one of the “comfortable couches” before being picked up by our friend and supporter, Lou, at 8am & had fun catching up with Lou at his body shop Colma, CA.
Lou & our friend Vinny have been helping us make Warrior Wishes Come True in the Bay area since we met in 2012. Here are some of the incredible memories they have helped us make!
At about 1:00pm they went over to our friend Vince’s house to hitch a ride to Santa Clara for the Thursday night 49ers game.
My dad was honored to be hosting Army SFC Jesse Reyes, Army SSG Alex Jauregui, Army Sgt Isa Marie McIntyre And Marine Javier Rodriguez. (MEET THE WARRIORS BELOW)
We loved SSG Jauregui’s sign! Unfortunately, the 49ers do not allow signs of any kind inside the stadium, so they made him throw it out before going inside…
Vince had a surprise for the Warriors before the game. Typically we tailgate before 49ers games, but we were told food & drinks would be waiting for everyone inside the stadium, so they headed inside as soon as they got to Levi’s stadium. They also stopped by the 49ers Museum, so the Warriors could see a little bit of 49ers history before the game. It’s a must do before or after 49ers games!
Today’s experience was truly a group effort. Lou donated his 2 tickets, as he always does and the other 4 were donated from Mike Herkenrath. As I mentioned before, Vince also surprised the guys with 50 yd line field suite passes to basically watch the game from a field level bar/restaurant with all you can eat & drink .
The Warriors enjoyed high fiving players as they ran out of the tunnel. The experience was incredible!
Needless to say the warriors had a great time! My dad said one of them even said this was one of the best experiences of their lives, and there was still much more to come including the game itself!
Unfortunately the 49ers ended up losing to the Cardinals 33- 21.
After the game everyone was invited to the players family area. This past July, We had met 49ers Defensive End, Quinton Dial at the ESPY Awards while hosting Shaun Castle & others. Shaun plays wheelchair basketball at Alabama and Quinton played college football there, so there was an immediate connection! Before saying goodbye, Quinton told us to contact him before coming out to San Fran so he could meet the Warriors & help us out.
We reached out last week & today he provided the warriors with Special Post Game Passes which allowed them the opportunity to meet Quinton and many other 49ers players.
Many of the 49ers players told my dad they were meeting THEIR HEROES!!! And especially Quinton – he and his girlfriend spent some good quality time hanging out with the guys pretty much shutting the stadium down. Quinton even got the warriors a cart to take them to pick up bags at bag check and then too their car in parking lot.
We couldn’t have made all these memories possible without Quinton Dial for helping create the Post Game opportunity, Lou And Mike who provided the tickets, Vince who helped provide the “Suite” pregame experience and our friends at New Era for providing 49ers caps for the Warriors!
TOGETHER WE MAKE WARRIOR WISHES COME TRUE!
Most Importantly Operation Warrior wishes would like to thank to our Special Guests for the evening; Army SSG Alex Jauregui, Army Warrior Isa Marie McIntyre, Army Sgt Jesse Reyes & Marine Javier Rodriguez. Thank you all for your service and sacrifices to our country! It’s appreciated, has not gone unnoticed & will never be forgotten!
SEE ALL THE PHOTOS FROM WARRIOR WISHES COMING TRUE IN SAN FRANCISCO HERE!
My Dad has a few “days off” to spend in San Francisco before heading to Los Angeles to make Warrior Wishes come true at His first ever LA Rams game this weekend. Stay tuned for more details!
MEET THE WARRIORS
ARMY SSG ALEJANDRO JAUREGUI
My name Alejandro Jauregui (Alex) I was born in Guadalajara Mexico on April 12 1985. When I was three yrs old my dad moved us to Williams CA where I grew up. When I was eight yrs my dad died in fatal car accident so I was raised by my mom. I graduated high school in June of 2003 decided to join the military as a wheeled vehicle mechanic.
I shipped out to basic training in Fort Knox KY followed by AIT in Aberdeen MD then airborne school in fort Benning GA. After graduating airborne school in March 2004 I was assigned to the 659 Maintain Co. in Ft Bragg NC. As soon as I arrived to my unit I was told not to unpack because we were going to Iraq in two months so I did first tour in the Baghdad area from June 2005 to June 2005. My second combat tour was in the andar province from Sept 2007 to Dec 2008, during the tour on one of our convoys we hit an IED which killed one of our guys followed by small arms fire. We had an infantry unit respond and after seeing what they did I decided that day to re class as an infantryman. After coming home from that deployment I went back to basic training to re class and was assigned with B co 2-508th PIR 82 airborne division, with who I would do an additional two deployments to Afghanistan, for a total for 42 months of combat.
On April 8, 2012, while out on patrol, I stepped on an IED and as a result I lost both my legs, two finger tips on my right hand and shrapnel wounds to my right forearm and most my hearing on my right side. I did my recovery at Walter Reed medical center in Bethesda MD and was medically retired in 2014.
I currently live in a five acre ranch which keeps me extremely busy, I have two ponies, six goats and 14 chickens. My wife Isa who is also a veteran with two combat tours to Iraq and eight yrs of service met in Iraq in 2007 and we have three kids, Bron 11, Danny 7 and Lilly 3.
Awards; Purple heart, meritorious service medal, Army accommodation medal with Valor, army accommodation medal X5, army achievement medal X4, Iraqi campaign medal w/ 4 campaign stars, Afghanistan campaign medal w/2 campaign stars, NATO medal, Combat infantry Badge, airborne wings.
ARMY SGT ISA MARIE MCINTYRE
Isa Marie McIntyre joined the Army in September 2003 at the age of 17 and completed basic training at Fort Jackson, SC. She then went to Redstone Arsenal in Alabama for Advanced Individual Training where she earned the Military Occupational Specialty of Multiple Launch Rocket Systems Repairer. She deployed to Iraq in September 2006 for 15 months and then deployed again to Iraq in 2009 for 12 months.
Her military awards include:
The Iraq Campaign Medal with three campaign stars
4 Army Commendation Medals
3 Army Achievement Medals
2 Army Good Conduct Medals
The National Defense Service Medal
The Global war on Terrorism Service Medal
The Army Service ribbon
The Overseas Ribbon
The Driver and Mechanic badge
and the Combat Action Badge.
She completed 8 years in the Army and ended her time in Service at the rank of Sergeant.
Mrs. McIntyre is currently working on her Bachelors degree in Business Administration and plans on applying to Sacramento State’s Business Honors Program next fall. She is the President of the Student Veterans Club on campus as well as a member of the Women Veterans Alliance and a recipient of the 2016 Army Women Foundation’s Legacy Scholarship.
ARMY WARRIOR JESSE REYES
SFC Reyes served as a Bradly Driver/Dismount with Lightning Troop and HHT 3/3 ACR
at Fort Carson, CO. He deployed with them in Support of Operation Iraqi Freedom I 2003-2004. His next assignment was to Anvil Troop 1/4 CAV 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany where he was assigned as a Bradly Gunner, Team Leader and Section Leader. He completed two deployments with the 173D; Operation Enduring Freedom 2007-2008 and 2009-2010. In his second tour with the Squadron he was severely injured by a Dismounted IED. His injuries brought him stateside.
SFC Reyes was sent to the Wounded Warrior Battalion at Balboa Medical Center San Diego, CA to heal from his injuries. He served in the Battalion from August 2010 to February 2011.
Arriving at Fort Benning, GA he was assigned to the Henry Caro Non-Commissioned Officer Academy as an Armored Advanced Leaders Course Instructor/Operations NCOIC and Pre-Ranger Instructor and for the Maneuver Center of Excellence.
SFC Reyes next assignment brought him to Joint Base Lewis-Mchord, Wa. assigned as a Platoon Sergeant in C TRP 1-14 CAV. From here is where SFC was medically retired November 26, 2015.
Awards & Decorations:
Purple Heart-2
ARCOM-8
AAM-2
He graduated from Unit Armorer Course, Unit Prevention Leader Course, Army Basic Instructor Course, Small Group Instructor Course, Stryker Leader Course, Battle Staff NCO Course, PLDC, BNCOC (man of steel award) and BNCOC Instructor Course (commandants list), Maneuver Senior Leader Course, and Senior Enlisted Joint Professional Military Education Course, Airborne School, Ranger School and Pathfinder School.
MARINE WARRIOR JAVIER RODRIGUEZ
My name is Javier T. Rodriguez and the branch of service I choose was the Marines. My lovely journey started in San Diego with those yellow foot prints. After all my boot camp and combat training was all said and done I was sent off to my MOS school my job as a marine was to be a field wireman. Once I graduated from there I went to my duty station in Camp Lejuene. Where I spent the rest of my first enlistment. I didn’t chose to reenlist because I want to finish up with school and hopefully go back into the marines as an officer. My dream is to be a captain and lead marines to greatness.
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Contact Craig for more information about the mission (630) 339-6714
