Rest in peace, Chris Kyle

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports on the memorial service that was held today at Cowboys Stadium for retired Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, killed this past Saturday:

About 7,000 attended a memorial service Monday at Cowboys Stadium for Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL sniper who was slain last week near Glen Rose.

At about 11:30 a.m., parking lots filled up quickly for the 1 p.m. service at the 80,000-seat stadium.

“I stand before you a broken woman,” Kyle’s wife, Taya, tearfully told the crowd. “Chris Kyle was ‘all in’ no matter what he did in life.”

After revealing her flaws to her husband, Taya Kyle said Chris told her: “You’re a package deal. I love you. All of you.”

At the beginning of the service, the crowd entered slowly into the stadium with the hymnΒ Mansions of the LordΒ playing on the P.A. system and images of Chris Kyle on the jumbo screen.

Serenaded by Scottish bagpipes, the casket carrying Kyle was placed on the blue star on the 50-yard line. A photo montage showed moments of Kyle’s life from his childhood through adulthood.

Dozens of Navy SEALS, past and present, stood as the SEAL creed was read at the memorial.

One-by-one, boyhood friends and fellow military members paid tribute to Kyle.

[…]

No politicians spoke at the service, however, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posted on her Facebook page that she and her husband, Todd, were planning to attend the memorial. “I find it sad to see that flags aren’t flying at half staff for this American hero,” Palin wrote on the page.

Indeed, especially considering he is reportedly the deadliest sniper in US military history:

It’s November 2004. Thanksgiving time. The second battle of Fallujah has launched, and Kyle is swaddled in silence atop an upturned baby crib, studying the enemy through a Nightforce 4.5-22 power scope attached to a .300 Win Mag rifle.

He’s feeling badass.

β€œWe just got word that the president of Iraq said that anyone left in the city is bad β€” meaning, clear to shoot,” he recalled for The Post. β€œFrom that point on, every fighting-age male was a target.”

That was just fine with Kyle, who spent five weeks in the hideout, protecting Marines on the ground and bagging seven confirmed kills β€” adding to his official total of 160, making him the deadliest sniper in US history.

β€œAfter the first kill, the others come easy. I don’t have to psych myself up, or do anything mentally β€” I look through the scope, get the target in the cross hairs and kill my enemy before he kills one of my people,” Kyle writes in his new autobiography, β€œAmerican Sniper.”

During his 10-year career as a member of SEAL Team 3, Kyle, 37, saw action in every major battle during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He became known among his fellow SEALS as β€œThe Legend.”

The enemy was less complimentary.

In Ramadi, insurgents put an $80,000 bounty on his head and branded him β€œAl-Shaitan Ramadi” β€” β€œThe Devil of Ramadi.”

Kyle, 38, and friend and neighbor Chad Littlefield were murdered this past Saturday at a Texas gun range byΒ former Marine Eddie Ray Routh. Β Much is being made of Routh’s alleged PTSD and whether or not that might have been a factor in Saturday’s shootings. Β Kyle was known to counsel PTSD sufferers.

Whatever the case may be, may God surround and comfort the families at this extremely difficult time. Β And wise words from Sarah Palin:

We may never know to what extent Chris kept us free or how many lives he saved by his brave actions in the line of fire. But his fellow warriors know how important he was. My son Track couldn’t meet Chris when Todd and I first met him because Track was deployed to Iraq. Then when we got to know Chris even better, our son was deployed in Afghanistan. We’ve met a lot of people in recent years, and Track has been privileged to meet them as well. But he said about Chris, β€œMom, he’s the ONE person in the entire world I would be star-struck to meet. He’s it.”

God bless this great warrior. Let us keep his wife and children in our prayers, and may we never forget him or his sacrifice.

Indeed.

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