Game 32 – Warrior Wishes Come True In Seattle!
It’s been another wild week filled with Warrior Wishes coming true. My dad has been on the road since last Thursday making stops in Pittsburgh, New York, Philadelphia & San Francisco!
On top of that we also were honored to host warriors at the Titans, Bears, Colts & Chiefs games too!
After spending the night at our friend Lou’s house in San Francisco, my dad ubered to the San Francisco airport at 4am to catch his early Wednesday morning flight to Seattle.
Since he had an entire day off, he spent day and night…. at the airport. 23 total hours to be exact. My dad says “Tom Hanks ain’t got nothing on me” …LOL.
Thursday morning, my dad jumped on the the Light Rail to Downtown Seattle & stadium area to set up lunch at Jimmy’s On First before the game. He also stopped to get Seahawks caps to gift to our guests.
Today we had the honor of hosting Army LTC Donnie LaGrange & his son at the Seahawks game.
Lieutenant Colonel Donnie LaGrange come from a military family. His father, Dan, served as an infantryman in Vietnam. His grandfathers both served (Robert Walker-Communications-Korean War, Don Ahrens-Pilot Candidate-WWII). Their family tree shows a lineage of service all the way back through the Revolutionary War!
Donnie grew up in Montezuma, IA prior to graduating from the United States Military Academy in 1998. He is a 20+ year Military Police veteran who has totaled nearly seven years overseas, including duties in Bosnia (1st Cavalry Division), South Korea (8th Military Police Brigade), Afghanistan (82nd Airborne Division and 3rd Infantry Division), and most recently, Eastern Europe (4th Infantry Division). He currently serves as the Deputy Brigade Commander for the 42nd Military Police Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.
LTC LaGrange chose to bring his son, Luke (10) along with him as his guest. Donnie says “Luke gets straight A’s in school, plays football, basketball, and baseball, and wrestles and hunts. He is passionate about science, engineering, and 3D printing. Luke got the nod because I missed 6 of his 10 birthdays, including the last 5 in a row due to military travel and deployments. Luke has handled it like a champ, and I wanted to say thanks to him for being Awesome.”
We always love the opportunity to host fathers & sons especially when we hear stories like these!
Donnie & his son arrived at about 12:30 for lunch. My dad had their hats waiting for them at the table.
Over lunch, my dad enjoyed We had learning about his service to our country. As they finished up lunch at exactly 2PM, Touchdown City was just opening up!
Touchdown City is basically an indoor team sponsored tailgate. It’s filled with fun interactive games, autograph signings, food, drinks & fun! Donnie & Luke had a blast!
Donnie may be getting a trip back to game in December – Century Link had a contest to throw footballs into target for 20 seconds,with top 3 coming back to future game to play for $5000! He led the contest early on and was still in 2nd Place when they went in to the stadium to watch the Green Bay Packers kick thugs off against the Seattle Seahawks.
The game was exciting from beginning to end starting with the very first play of the game. Seahawks RB, Chris Carson fumbled on the first play to set up the packers for a short field early TD. It looked like the Packers were going to run away with the game early on when the hawks fell behind 14-3, but the team battled back to close the gap to 21-17 at half time.
The Seahawks D must have made some adjustments in the 2nd half because they held the Packers to 3 total points in the 2nd half! On their offense scored a Touchdown & field goal to give them the 27-24 win!
Operation Warrior Wishes would like to thank Kan at Jimmy’s on first for providing the delicious pregame meal. We also want to thank Martin at OnField Sports across the street from Century Link stadium for providing New Era winter caps.
Most importantly, we want to thank Army Lt Col Donnie LaGrange for his 20 plus years of service & dedication to our country!
My dad is heading to the airport to get a few hours of sleep before making his way back home. He will be back in action Sunday in Indianapolis! Stay Tuned…
