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On Wednesday, January 14, 2015 12:58 PM,
The movie American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper and directed by
Clint Eastwood, was released on December 25th. It's the story of
Chris Kyle. It promises to be another Clint Eastwood classic film.
A TEXAS GOODBYE
Although this event took place almost two years ago, it still tells a
great story. 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 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 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
