Officials with the nonprofit Santa Clarita Grocery held a free lunch event for veterans on Saturday, where they hosted Santa Clarita’s oldest veteran as well as enjoyed a flyover by a local pilot.

Santa Clarita Grocery, local chapters of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, as well as The Guardians came together on Saturday for the second of two free lunch events they organized in order recognize National Military Appreciation Month.

Dozens of veterans came to the lunch, including newly-elected Congressman Mike Garica, R-Santa Clarita, who served as a fighter pilot in the United States Navy.

See Related: Free Lunch Event Serves 200 Meals To Santa Clarita Veterans

However, Garcia was not the only noteworthy veteran in attendance. Dee Larsen, who served as a medic in the United States Army during World War II, was also at the lunch. 

He is the oldest veteran living in the Santa Clarita Valley today, having been born on Dec. 7, 1922. Larsen reportedly told people during the event that, “The war started on my 19th birthday and I enlisted the next day.”

During his time in the Army, Larsen was stationed in China, Burma and India, during which times he received numerous accommodations, including what he considers his “most prized honor:” a medal from Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army. 

Photo courtesy of Santa Clarita Grocery.

“My medals were stolen and most of them were recovered but not that one, that one can never be replaced,” he told organizers at the event.

Larsen would leave the Army in 1946 as a staff sergeant, and has become a proud member of the VFW.

In addition to all of this, another Santa Clarita resident piloted a World War II era BT-13 trainer plane overhead to help celebrate and honor the lives of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.

Similar to the first lunch, the event offered free hot dog lunches to veterans and their families in a way that complied with existing public health orders, giving veterans a safe opportunity to get out of their house.

Photo courtesy of Santa Clarita Grocery.

The idea for both lunches came from Mary Ackerman, a longtime volunteer with Santa Clarita  Grocery who is connected to the military and veteran community through both her work in hospice care, where she works with several veterans, and her nephew, who is a member of the United States Air Force.

“The mental toll quarantine is taking on not just the ordinary ‘nine-to-fiver’ but the vets and military members that are not deployed and are home, potentially with PTSD or other issues, has made this a very unsettling time for everybody,” Ackerman said in a previous story.

To learn more about Santa Clarita Grocery, click here.

Photo courtesy of Santa Clarita Grocery.

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