Later Years and Death
Thompson moved to Key West in 1981, after being medically retired from the U.S. Army, where he remained active in the community, according to the Monroe County Office of Veterans Affairs.
On July 8, 2002, the staff of JIATF (Joint Interagency Task Force) East and some of his close friends threw Colonel Thompson a birthday party. He was described as being in high spirit and full of excitement. During the celebration he chose to quote General Douglas MacArthur's "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away" and then he was silent. Everyone in the room sat there quietly and knew that is how Colonel Thompson wanted to go as well.
Eight days later Thompson was found dead in his Key West By the Sea Condominium on July 16, 2002 at the age of 69. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea off the coast of Florida.
Read more about this topic: Floyd James Thompson
Famous quotes containing the words years and/or death:
“Twenty or thirty years ago, in the army, we had a lot of obscure adventures, and years later we tell them at parties, and suddenly we realize that those two very difficult years of our lives have become lumped together into a few episodes that have lodged in our memory in a standardized form, and are always told in a standardized way, in the same words. But in fact that lump of memories has nothing whatsoever to do with our experience of those two years in the army and what it has made of us.”
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