09-25-2022 Capital Style - Flipbook - Page 35
A plaque preserves names of those who
resided inside the home at 45 Rodgers
Road.
Jake Mendenhall’s bedroom at 45 Rodgers Road. The room was once the bedroom of Erik
Kristensen, the Navy SEAL who inspired the 2013 film,“Lone Survivor.”
One name on that brass plate struck home:
Capt. (now Rear Admiral) Edward Kristensen, whose teenage son, Erik, lived there
with his parents from 1987 to 1990. Erik, who
was 15 on arrival, would later attend the Academy, become a Navy SEAL and perish tragically, with two others, during a rescue mission
in Afghanistan in 2005. A 2013 film, “Lone
Survivor,” tells their story.
“Erik was a big inspiration to our son, Jake,
who has the same room as Erik, and is attending the same school [Gonzaga College High
in Washington, D.C.],” his mother said. “It’s an
honor to be living in this house.”
Greg Mendenhall, 47, is the Academy’s
director of special events and a former battalion officer. At times, Midshipmen acquaintances will stop by to chill or “to pick Capt.
Mendenhall’s brain,” his wife said. “The third
floor [once servants’ quarters] is basically a
bunkhouse for them, with six beds and a
bunch of blowup mattresses.”
Eerie happenings have occurred in the
house, Lisa Mendenhall said:
“The TVs have turned themselves on and
off a few times. At one point, our dog Leo [a
Rhodesian Ridgeback] would not walk past a
certain plank in our bedroom. It was almost
like he was seeing something, which did freak
me out a little.”
The décor is beach chic, with furniture
bought during a hitch in Japan and rugs of
hot pink and turquoise. The walls are their
original hues: blue-green in the dining room
and light green in the kitchen.
“You’re allowed to paint the walls, as long
as you paint them back to the original colors
before you leave,” she said. “I have no intention of painting a 6,500-square-foot house;
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