About AI Vets

Lawrence A. “Pete” McKibben is a United States Marine Corps veteran whose service took him to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Brazil. Over more than six and a half years in the Marine Corps, Pete served as a Combat Engineer, an Electrician, and ultimately as a Marine Security Guard assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. He later continued diplomatic security duties at the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro before returning to the United States. After his overseas service, Pete was stationed at Camp Lejeune during the years later linked to widespread water contamination exposure whose consequences would not be understood for decades. Like many veterans, he left the service without ever being told how those experiences might affect his long-term health.

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Following his military career, Pete founded and operated DADE Security Services, where he directed security operations for major venues, international assignments, and high-profile events, including Miss Universe. and Miss USA. The work required constant preparation, accountability, and an unwavering responsibility for the safety of others. A standard he came to define as Forever Secure™ meaning nothing is left to chance and no one is left unprotected. 

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Years later, serious health challenges emerged that were eventually linked to his military service and environmental exposures. As more information became available about Agent Orange and contamination at Camp Lejeune Pete began the difficult process of trying to understand his own medical history.

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While working with his attorney, one critical question stalled everything: What Came First™? Was his serious illness the result of an exposure that occurred years earlier or was it attributed to a later developed condition? Without a clear documented time line, there was no way to establish cause and effect. The answer didn’t come from a single document. It came from reconstructing the past service records, exposure events, and medical evidence into a coherent, chronological timeline.

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Once that work was done, clarity followed. ​From these experiences, two core principles emerged.

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Forever Secure™ This reflects a standard formed years earlier in Pete’s security work—one built on preparation, accountability, and an unwavering responsibility to ensure others are protected, never left exposed, and never forced to navigate uncertainty alone.

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What Came First™ This captures an insight gained through hard experience: before any claim, diagnosis, or outcome can be understood, the past must be reconstructed in the correct order. Without that clarity, cause and effect remain unresolved.

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Together, these principles guide everything AI VETS does in reconstructing the past with precision, preserving records with care, and helping veterans and surviving spouses move forward with confidence, accuracy, and dignity. Because no veteran and no surviving spouse should ever have to walk this road alone