BOISE, Idaho — A Boise restaurant paid tribute to the 13 U.S. troops that lost their lives in an attack on the Kabul airport on Thursday.
The staff at Sid's Garage in Boise and Meridian reserved 13 seats at a center table and placed a beer at each seat in memory of those who were lost.
The next day, the staff decided to honor local retired and current service members by providing them with a meal on the house, to thank them for their service.
“We want to do our part, even though it’s a small one, to say thank you not only to the families but to all the local service in town, previous and or past,” said Will Primavera, owner of Sid’s Garage.
The free meal, and the effort to say thank you was noted by past, and presents members of the military and Marine Corps. After many service members became aware of the restaurant’s efforts, in turn many of them decided to go out at pay their respect.
“Just thank you from the bottom of my heart, I can’t fully put into words how much I appreciate the sacrifice that they made to keep our freedoms,” said Derek Kamka, who served in the Marine Corps for four years.
“In a job like that every day you could end up dead, it's more about having the convictions of why you are there and I can confidently say that every one of those marines, sailors or soldiers who passed away had the right convictions, and they were there to do their job, they did their job.”
Staff said by the end of the day over hundreds of service members came to support the local business.
“There’s a lot of places that don't recognize even if you're in, let alone retired and stuff like that, so them being able to come out here and do all this, you know, being able to support the veterans and their families and stuff, it’s just nice for the heart, it just shows that they are really open to the community,” said Thomas McClain with the Idaho Army National Guard.
Sid’s Garage plans to host a fundraiser for the families of the 13 soldiers who were killed in Kabul, with 100% of the proceeds going directly to the families.
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