Texans Rock...

Via my good friend and fellow Texan, 67 Cougar, comes this story from the Dallas Morning News.

...A few weeks ago, a volunteer with the USO at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport contacted me. She was distressed. Volunteers had just learned that a tight budget meant cutbacks in some snacks and other perks offered to soldiers passing through the airport.

She was sure that if Dallas-area folks only knew of the problem, they would be eager to remedy it. I agreed and was happy to convey that need in a May 27 column...

GET READY FOR IT...

...donations to the D/FW USO over the last three weeks have totaled more than $392,000.

You read that right.

We're talking more than a third of a million dollars. And they're still counting! Donations are still rolling in!

I think there will be spicy chicken sandwiches and ice cream bars aplenty for our soldiers.

"It has been humbling. It has been joyful. You just lose words when you try to talk about what everyone has done," said Rhenda White-Brunner, director of the local USO. "Unbelievable is the only word I can say."

Some 2,300 individual donations have come in, ranging from a few dollars to one incredible donation of $100,000...(THEY)have not only met the food budget for the D/FW USO, but you have also covered its entire budget for this year and some of next.

And that means other USO funds are now freed up to support USO centers in places like Kuwait and Afghanistan, where local fundraising isn't possible.

So please understand that your support of our U.S. service members has been shown in a very real and powerful way...

KICK ASS!

As someone who has spent some time at the DFW airport coming to and from Iraq, I can say without a doubt that that place and the people there are just awesome. I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of affection that I, and all of the soldiers I have talked with have received as we have gone through there on our respective journeys to and from leave. I don't say this just because Texas is my home, but the people of Texas and specifically DFW have shown over and over again that they support the troops not just in words but in deed as well...as someone said once in a song GOD BLESS TEXAS.