QUITE A STORY AND QUITE A REMARK IN THE LAST
LINE.
From a
friend in Texas :
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 six 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 four 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
(an unknown donor paid the bill) to transport people to the different events
and they also had a few rental
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 five
days for the SEALs to congregate in and 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.
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. A tough
job.
***George W
Bush and his wife Laura met and talked to everyone. The Seal Team one on
one. They went behind closed doors with Taya for quite a while. They had
prayer with us all. You can tell when people are sincere and
caring.
***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
including the 200 SEALs and their families. 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 made sure that we
all were taken care of. His wife and him was just making sure everyone was
taken care of. Class! 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 am. Every car, bus, and
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 into the stadium!
We
were taken to The Legends room high up and a large buffet was
available.
That was for 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 attended. She looked nice. This was a very formal military
service. The service started at 1:00 pm 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 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, five 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 at the side doors
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
and 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 service
was at Texas National Cemetery .
Very few are
buried there and you have to apply to get
in.
It is for
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 protest 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 four taps to put his in and it was
almost like he was caressing it as he did
it.
Another
tearful moment.
**After the
service, Rick Perry and his 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 hour flight he is back in his spot, in a dangerous land on
the other side of the world, protecting America
.
We just wanted to share with you the
events of a quite an emotional, but blessed
week.
And to this day Barack
Hussein Obama, has NEVER
acknowledged
Chris
Kyle...see link below.
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