{"id":823,"date":"2026-05-26T04:35:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T04:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=823"},"modified":"2026-05-26T04:35:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T04:35:37","slug":"breakfast-club-of-military-vets-discuss-meaning-of-memorial-day-in-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=823","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBreakfast Club\u201d of military vets discuss meaning of Memorial Day in Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The meaning of Memorial Day can sometimes be lost amid the holiday fun of picnics, barbecues, and shopping.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=821\">U.S. fuel exports to Cuba rise as blackouts and shortages continue on the island<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Military veterans, however, appreciate the holiday at a deeper level than most of us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDignity, integrity, and pride,\u201d said Air Force veteran Nathaniel Thomas, discussing the meaning of Memorial Day.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas is among a breakfast club of retired military vets, some in their 80s and 90s, who gather every day for breakfast at a McDonald\u2019s in Miami. This routine has been going on for more than 20 years, with camaraderie and fellowship the main items on the menu. They are Black Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines who understand each other.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes it does, it does, it really does,\u201d said Air Force vet Charlie Powell when I asked him if it helps to hang out with other vets on Memorial Day. \u201cBecause all these guys that served, like me, all disabled veterans, that\u2019s the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=819\">Crews battle large junkyard fire in Opa-locka<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did what we had to do!\u201d said Ransom Broadhurst, still traumatized by his service in Vietnam and the culture shock of coming home at age 19. \u201cThis lady, she walked up to us and she pointed at all three of us with her finger right in my face, maybe six inches from my face and she screamed out baby killer, right there in the airport, baby killer, baby killer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He remembers that moment, \u201cJust like yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The McDonald\u2019s franchise owners, the Cabrera and Betancourt families, set up a special table for the missing. It pays tribute to those who lost their lives in combat or to vets from the breakfast club who pass away, like Leonard Hopkins, a B29 gunner who passed away recently. Memorial Day, his friends told us, is about remembering those who served.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s celebrating the service itself, all the fallen soldiers, not only the fallen but all the soldiers who came back, they came back with problems, too,\u201d Nathaniel Thomas said, adding that rather than thanking him for his service, he wishes the public would stop taking the military for granted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wonder do they really understand what serving this country was about? The fact that you don\u2019t have Russian troops or Chinese troops marching up and down the street,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=817\">Florida lawmakers complete budget deals, set for vote Friday<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The meaning of Memorial Day can sometimes be lost amid the holiday fun of picnics, barbecues, and shopping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miami"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u201cBreakfast Club\u201d of military vets discuss meaning of Memorial Day in Miami - Jacksonville Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=823\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cBreakfast Club\u201d of military vets discuss meaning of Memorial Day in Miami - 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