From
Congresswoman Kay Granger
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. Although I usually like to update you on what is happening in Congress Id like to take this time to tell you about something that happened in my hometown of Fort Worth last weekend. This past Saturday I gathered with others at the Fort Worth Vietnam Memorial for a special event in honor of Flag Day and the brave men who served in Charlie Company during the Vietnam War. Here is their story.
In August of 1967 James David Shorty Haas was an 18-year-old paratrooper from Fort Worth. He sent a letter to Fort Worth Mayor Dewitt McKinley detailing the challenges he and his fellow soldiers in Charlie Company 1st Battalion 503rd infantry faced. He wrote that he and his fellow soldiers were discouraged because they had heard about protests that were taking place at home.
By September Mayor McKinley and his fellow Fort Worth residents were sending duffle bags full of cakes cookies and letters of support. They were also invited to come to Fort Worth after the war. They were made honorary citizens at that time and an official Fort Worth flag was presented to them. Our city has always had a special relationship with the men and women who unselfishly defend our country and freedom around the world and the people of our city continued to support these men throughout the next two years.
Charlie Company is one of the most decorated brigades in military history. They sustained more casualties in Vietnam than the entire 101
st Airborne Division did in World War II. Many of those casualties were suffered soon after the cookies cakes and letters of support from the people of Fort Worth arrived. These first packages arrived just after Charlie Company faced a weeklong attack from the Viet Cong. Twenty members of the Company died in that attack and more than 150 men- 90 percent of Charlie Company -were wounded in this weeklong attack. Haas was among the wounded.
During the ceremony members of Charlie Company spoke and told the crowd how meaningful the compassion of the people of Fort Worth was to them. The men of Charlie Company unexpectedly presented the official Fort Worth flag that they kept all these years because they felt that it should be returned to the city. We did not know about the flag until they returned it. They were very emotional and we were too. They were just teenagers when they went off to fight a war in a country that theyd never heard of before their deployment. They will never forget what Fort Worth did for them and we will never forget either.
With the sometimes intense debates that appear in our political discourse it can be easy to forget that we must maintain our patriotism and love of country even though we may disagree with specific policies. This event was organized by the Daughters of the Republic of which I am a member. Special moments like these really put everything into perspective. God bless our heroes of Charlie Company.
