Travis County Commissioners Court
May 22, 2007
Item 5
Number five is next and that is to approve resolution urging all citizens to recognize memorial day. Does another member be of the court want to read this or do you like my reading?
>> whereas on may 12th, 2007 we honored and recognized one of Travis County's fallen warriors in the naming of a second u.s. Post office in Travis County after sergeant henry ybarra, iii, u.s. Army. Perez elementary school, one of eight new aisd schools opening this year, was named and dedicated for a local marine, lance corporal necklace perez, -- nicklaus perez, who was killed in action in iraq. Whereas on November 28th, 2005, the renaming and dedication of the Pflugerville post office honored the memory of sergeant byron wayne norwood, usmc, u.s. Marine corps. Whereas on mother's day, Sunday, may 13th, 2007, camp mabry, Austin, Texas, held an official sendoff ceremony for 800 Texas army national guard members heading to iraq for a year. Whereas many of our returning soldiers may suffer from combat related post traumatic stress disorder, ptsd, and/or traumatic brain injury, tbi, and life altering disabilities and amputations may not receive the care that their honorable service merits. Whereas according to the latest department of defense statistics, the grand total of all u.s. Service members killed, wounded, becoming ill or injured during their deployments to the iraq war and the afghanistan war surged past 60,000. Whereas all citizens of Travis County understand and appreciate the sacrifices that their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, neighbors have made by willingly answering the call to service, some giving their lives so that we live free in this great democracy. Whereas we ask all-american to pause at 3:00 p.m. On Monday, may 28, 2007, to observe a national moment of remembrance as a moment of reflection recognized by act of congress to put the memorial back in memorial day in honor of america's fallen heroes.
>> morning.
>> good porng, judge Biscoe and Commissioners. You know in the past I've come up here and I've shown you picture of service member who have passed away in iraq and afghanistan. And each year the statesman published the pictures of individuals and showed the number of individuals, a total count. But I thought it was a little more important that I identify in this resolution individuals that this community of Travis County has placed a memorial for these individuals, ie, the post office with henry ybarra and the education system with the elementary school for lance corporal nicklaus. And also with the other post office in Pflugerville with sergeant norwood. I felt that that was important so that this resolution, this resolution would be part of the archives that would be placed at the Austin history center, which will have a ceremony July the 21st. On behalf of all of the 60,000 Travis County veterans and the 80 veteran service organizations within this area, I accept this proclamation -- resolution, I'm sorry, on behalf of those individuals. Yesterday I attended blackshear elementary school for one of their programs, and I presented to students if the student could identify what the meaning of memorial day to them. If that student identified that it was to honor the fallen soldiers, the fallen here rose, I -- heroes, I presented a poster to them. I took 10 posters. This is the poster. I returned with none. Each student answered their question saying it's something in remember fwrans rans of a fallen soldier, I presented them with something like this for them to have in their home. You also have before you a list of activities for memorial day 2007. I try to provide this each year. It goes from sun city in georgetown all the way down to south Austin. This is for you. This is for you to look at and to pick and choose which activity you care to attend. Also, this list goes out all across the state of Texas, not only in Austin, but all across the state of Texas. So with that in mind there's one other item that I would like to bring before you, and that is the vietnam wall. The vietnam wall will be here on June the 1st through the third at the cook walden memorial center. That wall is a three-quarter scale size that represents the actual wall in dc. Every name on that wall will be read during this time period. 58,000 names will be read off of that wall. This year they have added, and you will see midway on your handout that three additional names have been added to the wall. This will bring the total to 58,256. Although these three veterans' names have long passed since their service in vietnam, it has been determined that their deaths are directly related to the wounds they received while in southeast asia during the war. So to all of you I offer an open invitation to participate in a memorial day service. And if you're not able to do that, remember at 3:00 p.m. Memorial day a moment of silence. There's a song, one is the only number -- is the loneliest number that there ever was. Just remember that one minute, one more family member, one more brother as and sister, one more time deployed. We need to bring this to an end. Thank you.
>> for those who would like a list of the times and places, they can contact the Travis County veterans service office or any member of the Travis County Commissioners court and we'll be happy to send them a copy of this. Do you have had this that we can send out by e-mail?
>> yes, sir.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Let's try to show appropriate appreciation.
>> thank you.
>> that passes by unanimous vote.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, May 23, 2007, 8:00 AM