Dear Friends
The echo from the crowd that came to pay the last respect to you yesterday was unanimous.I am sure that no eye was dry during that moving service, you touched everybody's inner feelings with your courageous act, you made everybody realize what a special kid you were, you left everybody numb by the pain your departure caused especially to your intimate family, you made everybody appreciate life as we know it, you made everybody realize how precious the freedom you helped us all enjoy is, you made us all see how far you went to fight so we could be guaranteed that freedom in the future, you made us all see how formidable of an enemy we have, we all tasted bravery for an instant because of you, you made me wish I could get up in that Church in front of that crowd and tell them all how richer you made me feel by having met you, I am also sure you made for an instant everybody in that crowd feel that way, I would not lie if I told you that yesterday you moved the entire town of Sherman, the cortege was miles long and as we crossed all the intersections where police stopped traffic it seemed life itself stopped to bid you good-bye. I know that hundreds of millions of Americans yesterday had they been privy of having known you or even of you would have said "Thank you Braden".
I did and I'll treasure the memory of that instant.
Good-bye Braden, God bless you!