Our Fallen Heroes

This is a true story that really happened on July 15, 2010 in Dayton Texas concerning our fallen hero from our town of Dayton Texas who was ssgt Jessie Ainsworth, age 24, who was killed on July 10, 2010 in the war on terror, on foreign soil. This story is not only dedicated to ssgt Jesse Ainsworth, but to every single fallen hero in America.

Dayton Texas is a small southeastern Texas town of about 5700 people. We are proud, we are few, and we highly respect the honor of our troops and the flag in which they fight to protect

Upon getting the bad news concerning ssgt Jessie Ainsworth, the town of Dayton went to work on giving our fallen hero, a heroes welcome home which would be at noon, on July 16, 2010.

In the 100 degree heat we started erecting 3ft by 5 ft American flags on ten foot poles on both sides of the road that his motorcade would travel on. We were proud to do this. I, my son John, and about 12 other additional city of Dayton employees took on this task.

I, being quite older, was not there to do the labor of pounding the flags in the ground, but rather to park my city truck in the road, behind the work crew, to warn the traffic that something was going on and to slow down. My city truck is equipted with flashing emergency lights and it prewarned coming traffic to slow for the workers.

On the morning of the 15th, while standing by my truck in the road, a car pulled up and stopped. I started to direct them to move on but for some reason I didnt. All the workers were summoned over. The man that had gotten out of this car had walked around the car, where a window had been rolled down and a lady sat there in the back seat. This man said that we were doing a wonderful thing. I told him that it wasnt enough. He went on to say that he was overwhelmed by the support of our town and then introduced himself and the lady in the car by extending his hand to everyone and saying, " The man you are honoring is our son Jesse" Lord, my eyes watered.

That made me do some thinking while we raised the red, white, and blue for the rest of the day. This is what I thought on. If it wasnt for soldiers just like Jesse Ainsworth, who with no second thought, fell on a foreign soil, then this proud flag which is beautifiul in its red, white and blue, which waves with glory, would mean nothing. It would have meant that we hung colored rags all day with no proudness. But it isnt just a colored rag. Its old glory, it stands proud, it stands beautful, it stands strong, and yes, it stands united.

May God bless all fallen heroes for their sacrifice.