Received this in an email from my
sister-in-law..... whose husband is retired SF...
U.S. NAVY SEALS REQUEST THAT YOU PASS
THIS ON!!!
Chris Kyle's awards.
•2
Silver Stars with Combat Valor
•5
Bronze Stars with Combat Valor
•Navy
and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat Valor...
•2
Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals with Combat Valor
•2
Combat Action Ribbons
•Navy
Presidential Unit Citation
•Joint
Meritorious Unit Award
•Navy
Unit Commendation
•Navy
Meritorious Unit Commendation
•Navy
Good Conduct Medal with 2 Service Star
•National
Defense Service Medal
•Armed
Forces Expeditionary Medal
•
Iraq Campaign Medal with 4 Campaign Stars
•Global
War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal
•Global
War on Terrorism Service Medal
•Sea
Service Deployment Ribbon with 3 Service Stars
•Rifle
Marksmanship Medal
•Pistol
Marksmanship Medal
•
United States Navy SEALs Insignia
Here
is a description of his funeral, definitely worth reading:
This is apparently from a wife of one of the Navy Seals
in attendance...it makes interesting and disturbing, but
hardly surprising, reading.
Chris
Kyle became
the US 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
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" and 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). 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. 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 any 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 normal 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 motorcycle 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 heart-warming. 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, or 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.
Is
there a reason Texas means "FRIENDLY" ??
