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veterantributes.org[/caption]The Texas Legislative Medal of Honor has been posthumously awarded to Lieutenant Colonel Ed Dyess and Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott presented the awards to the Dyess family and to Taya Kyle in an event outside of the Governors mansion. While Navy Seal Chris Kyle is a household name, Ed Dyess may not be. Dyess, a World War II Commander of all the flying squadrons in the Asian Theater fought valiantly and on 9 April, 1942 he was taken as a Prisoner of War(POW) after refusing[caption id="attachment_811" align="alignleft" width="150"]
www.businessinsider.com[/caption]to evacuate in order to stay with the men he lead. After being held captive in numerous Japanese prison camps and surviving the horrendous Bataan Death March, Dyess led a large scale prison break from the Davao Penal Colony in April 1943 and with the help of Filipino guerrillas escaped on the USS Trout in July and subsequently returned back the the United States.The Office of The Governor released the following citations as seen on NBCDFW:
Christopher Scott Kyle was born and raised in Texas and was a US Navy SEAL from 1999 to 2009. He is currently known as the most successful sniper in American military history. According to his book American Sniper, he had 160 confirmed kills (which was from 255 claimed kills). Kyle served as a Navy SEAL in 4 tours in the latest Iraq war. For his bravery and military skills, he was awarded some of the highest medals in the US military multiple times including the Bronze and Silver Star. In 2009, Kyle decided to leave the SEALS and was honorably discharged. After some time struggling with civilian life, he started a security company called CRAFT and wrote the New York Times bestselling book, American Sniper. Kyle was murdered at a shooting range by a US military veteran he was trying to help on February 2, 2013 in Texas.
William Edwin Dyess, World War II flier, was born August 9, 1916, in Albany, TX. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and began assaults on Bataan and Corregidor, Dyess was thrust into combat in the Asian Theater as commander of all flying squadrons on Bataan. On March 3, 1942, in Subic Bay he sank a Japanese ship and damaged shore installations. As the enemy closed in, Dyess refused evacuation and remained with his men in the Philippines. On April 9, 1942, the American forces surrendered to the Japanese, and Dyess became a prisoner of war. He survived the horror of the Bataan Death March and imprisonment at camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan and the Davao Penal Colony. At Davao, Dyess and several other prisoners escaped on April 4, 1943. They contacted Filipino guerrillas that led them to the submarine Trout on July 23. After returning home and staying in an army general hospital in Virginia to regain his health, Dyess was promoted to lieutenant colonel and resumed flying on December 22, 1943. He was killed that day in Burbank, CA, attempting an emergency landing and was buried in Albany.
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