Patriotism, Texas and Chris
Kyle:
I
just wanted to share with you all that out of a horrible
tragedy we were blessed by so many people. Chris was Derek's
teammate through 10 years of training and battle. They both
suffer/suffered from PTSD to some extent and took great care
of each other because of it. 2006 in Ramadi was horrible for
young men that never had any more aggressive physical
contact with another human than on a Texas football field.
They lost many friends. Chris became the armed services
number #1 sniper of all time. Not something he was happy
about, other than the fact that in so doing, he saved a lot
of American lives. Three years ago, his wife Taya asked him
to leave the SEAL teams as he had a huge bounty on his head
by Al Qaeda. He did and wrote the book The American Sniper.
100% of the proceeds from the book went to two of the SEAL
families who had lost their sons in Iraq. That was the guy
Chris was. He formed a company in Dallas to train military,
police and I think firemen as far as protecting themselves
in difficult situations. He also formed a foundation to work
with military people suffering from PTSD. Chris was a giver
not a taker. He along with a friend and neighbor, Chad
Littlefield, were murdered trying to help a young man that
had served 6 months in Iraq and claiming to have
PTSD.
Now I need to tell you about all of
the blessings. Southwest
Airlines flew in any SEAL and their family from any
airport they flew into free of charge. The employees donated buddy
passes and one lady worked for 4 days without much of
a break to see that it happened. Volunteers were at both
airports in Dallas to drive them to the hotel. The
Marriott Hotel
reduced their rates to $45 a night and cleared the hotel for
only SEALs and family. The Midlothian, Tx.
Police
Department paid the $45 a night for each room.
I would guess there were about 200 people staying at the
hotel. 100 of them SEALs. Two large buses were
chartered (unknown donor paid the bill) to
transport people to the different events and they also had a
few rent
cars (donated). The police and secret
service were on duty 24 hours during the stay at our hotel.
At the house the Texas DPS parked a large
motor home in front to block the view from reporters. It
remained there the entire 5 days for the SEALs to congregate
in and all to use the restroom so as not to have to go in
the house. Taya, their two small children and both sets of
parents were staying in the home. Only a hand full of SEALs
went into the home as they had different duties and meetings
were held sometimes on a hourly basis. It was a huge
coordination of many different events and security. Derek
was assigned to be a pall bearer, to escort Chris' body when
it was transferred from Midlothian Funeral Home to Arlington
Funeral Home and to be with Taya. Tough job. Taya seldom
came out of her bedroom. The home was full with people from
the church and other family members that would come each day
to help. I spent one morning in a bedroom with Chris' mom
and the next morning with Chad Littlefield's parents (the
other man murdered with Chris). Tough job.
Nolan Ryan sent
his cooking team, a huge grill and lots of steaks, chicken
and hamburgers. They
set up in the front yard and fed people all day long. The
200 SEALs and their family. The next day a local BBQ restaurant set
up a buffet in front of the house and fed all once again.
Food was plentiful and all were taken care of.
The family’s
church kept those
inside the house well
fed.
Jerry Jones, the
man everyone loves to hate, was a rock star. He donated use
of Cowboy Stadium for the services as it was determined that so many
wanted to attend. The charter buses transported us to the
stadium on Monday at 10:30. Every car, bus, motorcycle was
searched with bomb dogs and police. I am not sure if kooks
were making threats trying to make a name for themselves or
if so many SEALs in one place was a security risk...I don't
know. We willing obliged. No purses ino the stadium! We were taken to The Legends
room high up and a large buffet was available. That was
about 300 people. We were growing. A Medal of Honor recipient was
there, lots of secret service and police and Sarah Palin and
her husband. She looked nice, this was a very formal
military service. The service started at 1:00 and when we
were escorted onto the field I was shocked. We heard that
about 10,000 people had come to attend also. They were
seated in the stadium seats behind us. It was a beautiful
and emotional service. Bagpipe and drum corps were wonderful
and the A&M men’s choir stood through the entire service
and sang right at the end. We were all in
tears.
The next day was the 200 mile
procession from Midlothian, Tx. to Austin for burial. It was
a cold, drizzly, windy day, but the people were out. We had
dozens of police motorcycles riders, freedom riders 5
chartered buses and lots of cars. You had to have a pass to
be in the procession and still it was huge. Two helicopters
circled the procession with snipers sitting out the side
door for protection. It was the longest funeral procession
ever in the state of Texas. People were everywhere. The
entire route was shut down ahead of us, the people were
lined up on the side of the road the entire way. Firemen
down on one knee, police officers holding their hats over
their hearts, children waving flags, veterans saluting as we
went by.. Every bridge had fire trucks with large flags
displayed from their tall ladders....people all along the
entire 200 miles standing in the cold weather. It was so
heartwarming. Taya rode in the hearse with Chris' body so
Derek rode the route with us. I was so grateful to have that
time with him.
The services
were at Texas National Cemetery. Very few are buried there and you
have to apply to get in. It is like people from Civil War,
Medal of Honor winners a few from the Alamo and all the
historical people of Texas. It was a nice service and the
Freedom Riders surrounded the outside of the entire cemetery
to keep the crazy church people from Kansas that protests at
military funerals away from us. Each SEAL put his Trident (
metal SEAL badge) on the top of Chris' casket one at a time.
A lot hit it in with one blow, Derek was the only one to
take 4 taps to put his in and it was almost like he was
caressing it as he did it. Another tearful
moment.
After the service the governor's
wife, Anita Perry, invited us to the governor's mansion. She
stood at the door and greeted each of us individually and
gave each of the SEALs a coin of Texas (she was a sincere, compassionate,
and gracious hostess). We were able to tour the ground floor
and then went into the garden for beverages and BBQ. So many
of the team guys said that after they get out they are
moving to Texas. They remarked that they had never felt so
much love and hospitality. The charter buses then took the
guys to the airport to catch their returning flights. Derek
just now called and after a 20 hours flight he is back in
his spot,
in a dangerous land on
the other side of the world, protecting
America.
I
just wanted to share with the events of a quite an
emotional, but blessed
week.
This is
what this country is truly about, not the current crap from
Washington!!
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