The link below is just to the blog where all this is posted so need to
double reading it
Interesting to see what other people have posted though
Capn' Patt 7 Jodi shares. BE SURE to read the comment I added in
the next to the last little bit in Burgundy font!
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 team mate 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 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 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 an 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 into 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
.
We just wanted to
share with you the events of a quite an emotional, but blessed
week.
And to this day, the
PRESIDENT in the White House has never
acknowledged Chris Kyle, yet he can call washed up
basketball player Jason Collins to congratulate him on "coming
out"!
This is about the
funeral for Chris Kyle, the SEAL sniper with the most kills in the history of
war.
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