Diane Diekman
Patrick Branco
Patrick Branco was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, and joined the U.S. Coast Guard as an independent duty hospital corpsman. After serving four years in Kodiak, Alaska, and New London, Connecticut, he transferred to the U.S. Navy as an HM2 and was assigned to USS Kansas City (AOR-3) out of Alameda. Advanced to chief petty officer in 1984, he was commissioned a few months later as a Medical Service Corps Officer. His duty stations included Coast Guard bases, Navy bases, two Army posts, and a Marine Corps base. He retired after 21 years, at the rank of lieutenant, and went on to a career in hospital administration. For the next 25 years, he served as a hospital CEO in several hospitals across the country.
Sharon Taplett-Lundgren
Sharon Taplett-Lundgren was born in Sioux Falls and is a wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She served four years in the U.S. Navy as a Hospital Corpsman/Operating Room Technician and fourteen years in the U.S. Army Reserve. She then received a direct commission as a Medical Service Corps officer in the Army Reserve, reached the rank of Captain, and got out of the military at 18 years. She retired from the Department of Veterans Affairs with 34 years of federal service; her final job was inspecting VA hospitals for Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety & Health and Joint Commission violations in five states. She is past historian of American Legion Post 15 and a member of the Post 15 and Veterans of Foreign Wars funeral honor guards.
Jim McQuisten
Barry Andres
Barry Andres was born and raised in southwest Minnesota. During a four-year enlistment in the U.S. Navy, stationed in Louisiana and Texas, he attained the rate of Radioman Second Class Petty Officer. He retired from a multi-national food company in Minnesota after 35 years in its IT department, where he started as a computer programmer and later managed the computer centers and network team. He was a member of a paid volunteer fire department for 18 years and EMT for several years. He moved to Sioux Falls in 2021 and is active in American Legion Post 15 as adjutant and funeral honor guard member. He regularly participates with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary out of Duluth, Minnesota.
Dale Hill
Dale Hill enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1969 and served a year as a hospital corpsman with the Marines and 2½ years as a surgical technician aboard hospital ship USS Repose (AH-16). He enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve in 1982 and served 3½ years as a hospital corpsman before being commissioned as an intelligence officer, serving in that capacity for 13½ years. He earned a PhD in Animal Nutrition, worked in the livestock feed and pet food industries for more than 40 years, and continues to do consulting work in these industries. Dale has been a member of the American Legion for over 40 years, serving as commander and vice commander for six years in one post and four years in another post. He is currently a Legion District Vice Commander in South Dakota.
Jonathan Theel
Jonathan Theel is a South Dakota native who recently retired as a Captain in the U.S. Coast Guard. He has more than three decades of experience in high-stakes environments such as search and rescue, emergency and crisis management, and law enforcement. In the Coast Guard, he served on small boats, cutters, and U.S., British, and Dutch naval vessels across the East and Gulf Coasts, Great Lakes, Caribbean, and Persian Gulf. He also served as Assistant Commandant of Cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a military fellow at RAND Corporation. Since moving back home to Sioux Falls, he has been heavily involved in volunteering for the American Legion and Midwest Honor Flight, starting a drone crop spraying business, and serving as the Executive Director of the South Dakota Military Heritage Alliance.
Mark Winter
Mark Winter retired from the U. S. Naval Reserve as an electronics technician chief petty officer, after serving 28-plus years. He then retired with 30 years of federal service from the U.S. Postal Service, where he was an electronics technician who maintained mail processing equipment. He is the current commander of the Sioux Falls Area Veterans Council, first vice commander of Hartford American Legion Post 118, senior vice commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 628, and a member of Post 118 and Post 628 funeral honor guards. He is past president of the Tri-State Navy Chiefs Association and past commander of American Legion Post 118.
