Willie J. Danos, 77, US Army/Vietnam veteran, Marble Falls, TX, 05 June 2024

[markwells]

Confirmed Mission: The family of Willie Joseph Danos has invited the Patriot Guard Riders to participate in his funeral and interment services.  Mr. Danos enlisted in the US Army at 18 yrs old and served four years.  He deployed to Vietnam as a machine gunner, attaining the rank of Sergeant.

More about his life can be read here.

Date/Time: Wednesday, 05 June 2024.  Funeral mass begins at 11:00 am. Interment immediately follows.

Location: St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 105 RM 1431, Marble Falls, TX 78654.   Map link.

Timeline:
10:00 – 10:20 am – Staging
10: 20 am – Briefing
10:30 am – Flag line

Wx: High 95 deg F, partly cloudy.

Notes:  Following the start of the funeral service we will strike the flag line and standby to join the law enforcement escorted procession to the Lakeland Hills Memorial Park Cemetery (approximately 13 miles) where we will stand a flag line for the interment service.

Ride Captain: Soup Campbell, robertsoupcampbell@yahoo.com, 512-925-2104
Flag Wrangler: Nicki Campbell

Please attend to honor the brave service of this soldier who answered our nation’s call. 

[SoupCampbell]

Completed Mission: Nine PGR members were there to honor this hero. We had one new rider, Larry Webb of Kingsland, a member of the Kingsland American Legion Post #437. We also had 2 other Kingsland American Legion Post members, including the Post Commmander, Mike Wheeler. Nicki showed up early and posted flags by the road so that people could easily ID the entrance to the church. We were blessed by a nice breeze and cooler temperatures at the church portion of the mission as the result of a squall line that went through north of our area. It did not last for the burial portion, as it was hot and very humid.

The flag line at the church was uneventful. The hero’s daughter made a special effort to come out and thank us for being there and other family members asked to take pictures of the flag line.
At the start of the service we stood down the flag line and Warren assumed Ride Captain duties for the escort portion of the mission so that I could accompany Nicki to the cemetery and help get ready for the flag line there. When Nicki and I arrived at the Lakeland Hills Memorial Park, the Highland Lakes Honor Guard were already on the scene. They had posted the US, Army and Texas flags at the grave site so we did not post or carry an Army Flag. The Highland Lakes Honor Guard took care of military ceremonial parts of the burial portion of the mission including taps, gun salute, folding and presenting of the flag and prayer. Their conduct of the military ceremonial portion was impressive.

Good mission. RIP Sergeant Willie Joseph Danos.

[Author]

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