This is why America
will remain strong. We take care of our own as well as others who
may not deserve taking care of. I just wanted to share with you all that
out of a horrible tragedy we were blessed by so many
people.
Chris Kyle 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 kind of 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 claimed 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
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 were
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 Kyle 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
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 the
Midlothian Funeral Home to the Arlington Funeral Home, and to be with
Taya. A tough job.
Taya seldom came out of
her bedroom. The house 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 on 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 were 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 he were just making sure everyone was
taken care of….Class... He donated the 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, 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 willingly
obliged. No purses went 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. 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.
The Bagpipe and drum corps were
wonderful and the Texas 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, 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 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 were
down on one knee, police officers were 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 were 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 like people from the 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
Governor Rick Perry and his wife, Anita, invited us to the governor's
mansion. She stood at the door, 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 Seal 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.
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