The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Both Ken Madden and his son Sean, of rural Crawfordsville, graduated from the University of Iowa, and both participated in ROTC — Reserve Officer Training Corps. In 2002 Colonel Ken Madden had the honor of commissioning his son Sean, upon graduation from the U of I, to 2nd Lieutenant. Father Ken is on the Alumni Board at the University of Iowa and, occasionally is asked to assist in the commissioning of new officers. In this instance he jumped at the opportunity to do the honors for his son.
22 years later, on Oct. 11, 2024, Retired Colonel Ken Madden promoted Sean to Colonel at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Father Ken couldn’t be more pleased, nor son Sean happier.
But the anomaly doesn’t end there. In 2007, both Ken and Sean were stationed in Iraq, Sean with the Iraqi National Police and Ken with the CIA. It was Thanksgiving Day and Ken had invited Sean to join him for Thanksgiving dinner. They had just sat down when they were bombarded with insurgent mortars. Ken and Sean ran to a bomb shelter, and sat there while their Thanksgiving dinner, with mashed potatoes and gravy, got cold and the dessert warm. Not too many fathers and sons can say they shared a bomb shelter on Thanksgiving Day, and had so much to be thankful for…