Fort Chadbourne Monument Honors Gold Star Families
May 13, 2017
Susan Castillo | Concho Valley Homepage
Bronte, TX - A "Gold Star Families Memorial Monument" will soon stand about six feet tall at Fort Chadbourne. It will honor west Texas families of the men and women who've given their lives for our freedom, including the Burgess family.
"They make kind of a quilt out of broken hearts," says Terry A Burgess a Gold Star Dad.
His son is Staff Sergeant Bryann Burgess.
The all American boy who grew up loving his family and his country, enlisted after 9-11.
"Bryan came to us and he said dad I'm going to fight back. He wasn't asking us, he was telling us. he had already enlisted," Terry Burgess says.
He rose through the ranks quickly. In March of 2011, he was killed in Afghanistan.
"Bryan was 29. He was the old man of his unit when they came back. Bryan five others were killed on the morning of his last mission."
It was clear he was loved by his men. "He kissed the helmets of the men on his team before they went into Afghanistan. And at the ceremony when they came back, the men leaned in and kissed Bryan's helmet on his memorial. It was a great love between him and his men," says Burgess.
The Burgess family says monuments like these means the world to them.
"They guarantee that the sacrifice of our soldiers, our loved ones, is not going to be forgotten," says Terry Burgess.
The monument is expected to be up by the end of the year.
Friday we showed you what the monument will feature. For that story click here.
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