In Memoriam: Pecan Grove Cemetery visitors honor the 'supreme sacrifice'

Memorial Day may have just been the chance to enjoy a sunny three-day weekend for some, but for the 2,000-plus people who showed up for the annual service at Pecan Grove Cemetery, it was a solemn day of observance.

"Calvin Coolidge said that a nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten," said Collin County Judge Keith Self, a West Point graduate, Army Ranger and Green Beret who appeared in full military uniform for Monday's service. "We are here to remember those who paid that supreme sacrifice."

The annual Memorial Day service at the Pecan Grove Cemetery kept with its long traditions, including special addresses from U.S. Reps. Ralph Hall and Sam Johnson, and featured a very touching and special dedication to one fallen soldier who started another solemn tradition at the cemetery.

Hall praised the hard work and dedication of the military's men and women as well as Johnson's service, not just as a congressman but also as a veteran and serviceman who spent nearly seven years as a prisoner of war in a Hanoi stronghold during the Vietnam War.

"It's not because Sam is a hero that he's elected year in and year out," Hall said. "It's because he's the heart and soul of the Congress ... I wouldn't want to be in Congress if he wasn't there."

Johnson humbly recognized not just his own harrowing time in the POW camp, but also the harrowing time of his fellow soldier, Vice Admiral James Stockdale, a 1947 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who served as the senior naval officer in the Vietnam POW camps. Stockdale passed away in 2005 at age 81.

Johnson recalled one of his captors ordering Stockdale out of the bunk of his cell and the brave response he gave to his enemy.

"He decked him right there," Johnson said. "That's America's soldiers right there."

Johnson said he and Stockdale were labeled as "die-hards" for their regular attempts to disrupt and defy their captors, and they spent a good deal of their time in solitary confinement in a row of cells they dubbed as "Alcatraz."

The soldiers devised methods of communication such as tapping five-letter words on the walls of their cells and a "cough, hack, spit" code that let them talk in the open, sometimes in clear sight of the enemy.

"The enemy tried to break our spirits and our bodies," Johnson said, "but we tried to communicate with each other all the time, and every night, we would sign off with 'GBU' or 'God Bless You.'"

Johnson encouraged those in attendance to nominate a veteran for his or her service with the newly launched Congressional Veteran Commendation program for Texas' 3rd District, a nominations-based program that formally recognizes the sacrifices and efforts made to ensure the country's safety in times of war and peace. Nominations can be made by visiting Johnson's Congressional website at www.samjohnson.house.gov. The deadline for nominations is Sept. 16.

"I'm confident there are some future Congressional nominees in this bunch," Johnson said. "Theirs are stories we ought to preserve for this country, to be sure it remains the land of the free and the home of the brave."

One of those fallen soldiers who received a special recognition Monday was Army 2nd Lt. Brian Drew Smith, a father, husband, 1990 McKinney High School graduate and Troop 303 Eagle Scout who died on July 2, 2004, from a sniper's bullet in Iraq.

Assistant Scoutmaster Jerry Lewis said Smith started the troop's tradition of placing flags on the gravesites of those fallen soldiers at Pecan Grove who gave their life in service of their nation, a tradition that continues in his honor.

A special plaque was presented at Monday's service to honor the life Smith gave to his nation and the legacy he left for his family and community.

"When you see the flags out there, it touches us because we, as a community, did that," Lewis said, "and we sent the soldier who did that off to war to fight for us."

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