This
is apparently from a wife of one of the Navy Seals in attendance... it makes
interesting, disturbing, but hardly surprising reading.
Chris Kyle 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 because 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, how to protect 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 to the funeral... 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 SEAL's 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 meet in and so they could
use the restroom there instead of the bathroom 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 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).
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 because 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
We
just wanted to share with you, the events of a quite emotional, but blessed
week."
To
this day, no one in the White House has ever acknowledged Chris Kyle; his
service, his death, his duty, his generosity, his caring, his life.
However,
the President can call a sports person and congratulate him on his bravery for
announcing to the world that he is gay.
He
can say on national television that someone, a man who has committed a crime
and was shot by police in the line of duty, would have made him a good son.
The SEALS have asked that you please, keep this moving if you
think Chris Kyle would have made a good son.
