Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Our Fallen Hero



On Easter Sunday Sgt. Chris Hake was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Chris was born and raised in Enid. He was only 26 years old, recently married with a brand new baby who just so happened to be named after him. On Monday April 1st he was flown in to Oklahoma and as he was driven to the funeral home here in Enid every street was lined with people. I just so happen to work on the corner of that major intersection where they had all the troops lined up to salute him as they drove by. Right as I drove by to go into work I saw Ben right on that very same corner ready and willing to pay his respect. I went into my work and about 10 minutes later the funeral precession started heading through the intersection. It seemed as though time had stopped for that brief moment. We all immediately stopped what we were doing and lined up by the glass windows and just watched. We all had tears in our eyes as we immediately saw the troops standing at attention and everyone getting out of their cars and putting their hands over their heart with tears in their eyes. Flags were lining the road. Another thing that was very touching to me was an old man who had gotten there about 20 minutes earlier had parked in our parking lot and walked over into the grass median with his dog and just stood there with his tall American flag and an american flag bandanna tied around the dogs neck and it seemed as though they never moved. It was absolutely amazing. Today was Chris's funeral and the very same thing happened. I will never forget that day. God Bless Chris and his sacrifice for all of us. He will not be forgotten.

Here are some things his wife had said about all of this in the paper:

“I had no idea the type of support we have received,” she said. “Going down (Monday), and all the flags and everyone standing out there ... It’s something you would never dream about. It was amazing how many people were out there, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.”

“When the plane rolled up yesterday, everyone broke down. Having him here and touching the casket ... The ride to town was about the same with all the people out,” he said. “You can’t believe that many people would come out to honor your son and your husband.”

4 comments:

Joneel said...

Oh gosh, too sad. I'm glad that they felt the support from the people that live there in the city.
he deserved their respect.

Andy and Melissa said...

I am so sad for his wife and his son that won't grow up knowing his dad, but they can both be so proud that he served us all so well.

Ashley K. said...

WOW... what an amazing story.

p.s. why do you keep getting weird scam things on your blog? Grogal...

Ashley K said...

I have no idea why those keep popping up. I might need to go to private like you did.